AS THEY traversed the harsh, wooded terrain in northeastern Greece, the 18 asylum-seekers were presented with an agonising dilemma: Take the safer route through villages and over highways but into the arms of the Greek authorities, or travel through the forests and fields being ravaged by Europe’s largest recorded wildfire. They opted for the forests.
Greek authorities assumed the victims were asylum seekers because no one was looking for missing people locally. And for more than a month, their identities, and the circumstances of their deaths, remained a mystery.