The sinking of an illegal immigration ship constitutes an unpredictable event, responsible for
a mass disaster that can generate a large media resonance. Therefore, it constitutes a medical
and social emergency.
In this work, we propose to describe the management procedure of mass disasters related to
the sinking of illegal immigrant ships and to document the main difficulties encountered.
Even if important advances have been made in the management and the identification process
of clandestine immigrants, various challenges and difficulties remain to be overcome in order
to provide a rapid response to the families, who are uncertain about the destiny of their
missing relatives.