The Project
The "Border Memory" project was launched by Collettivo Rotte Balcaniche, an Italy-based collective of activists and volunteers that has been supporting people on the move stranded at the eastern borders of Europe since 2018. Our journey began in Bosnia, where thousands of people were brutally pushed back by Croatian police. From Bihać and Velika Kladuša, we moved to the Subotica area, on the border between Serbia and Hungary, and then to Bulgaria in 2023, after hearing about the extreme violence perpetrated by the Bulgarian police. We always tried to move with the people, to be where the need was greatest and state violence most acute and unchallenged—on the one hand, to create safe spaces of solidarity for people on the move; on the other, to be an unwelcome presence for the authorities, like sand in the gears of the border machine.
Over the past year, on the Bulgarian-Turkish border, we have been dedicated to the search and rescue of people in distress during their journey, establishing a "safeline" that can directly reach border locations, address emergencies, and prevent pushbacks. In these operations, we have encountered dozens of cases of border deaths and "missing persons"—people whose contacts were lost during their journey and who were never found, sometimes for weeks, months, or even years. We have witnessed the struggles of families trying to identify and recover the body of a loved one—a son, a brother—so they could at least mourn. But we’ve also seen the endless grief of not knowing the truth: the unanswered questions, the futile searches, and the deliberate attempts by authorities to conceal the facts.
The Border Memory project was born out of this desperation and anger. It is a search for answers that should be rightfully given, but also the beginning of a collective struggle to ensure there are no more border deaths. We believe that sharing individual sufferings with others in the same situation, and with those in solidarity, not only helps face these hardships but also creates collective strength and action.
Inspired by other experiences from the central Mediterranean route and the route to North America, this project aims to ensure that the dead and missing are not forgotten. It seeks to build a collective counter-memory of borders: not just of institutional violence, but also of the resistance of those who challenge it and fight for their loved ones. In this sense, memory can become a tool for struggle.
In particular, Border Memory is focused on tracing the cases of the dead and missing and activating searches, while building cross-border alliances of solidarity and resistance to fight against this deadly regime. It was born from the encounter between Collettivo activists and the families of missing persons in Bulgaria.
The website includes two forms in multiple languages for reporting disappearances or deaths, along with stories and maps related to the reports, as well as various contributions on the subject.
For now, the scope of our actions is primarily focused on Bulgaria, where we are active on the ground. However, we aim to expand the project to the entire Balkans, including countries such as Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and others, where many people similarly die or disappear while crossing borders into Europe. To achieve this, we welcome and seek the cooperation of all individuals and groups who share our goals and methods.
This is not a matter of statistics or labels, but of fighting together.
