Author: Sandugash Duisenova
Mentor: Ainur Koskina
Despite 30 years of independence, Kazakhstan still has no law regulating burial and funeral affairs. This legal vacuum has created chaos. No one truly knows who is responsible for burials, who owns cemeteries, or why a burial plot can sometimes cost more than an apartment.
The gravest situation concerns unidentified bodies and so-called unclaimed individuals — those whose relatives could not be found in time or who were refused burial by family.
These bodies are buried in inhumane conditions, in mass graves without names, identified only by numbers, with no respect paid. Funding for this process is minimal, and in some cases, the bodies lie in morgues for months, unwanted and forgotten. The issue was explored in depth by Orda.kz.
*The original article is written in Russian
The full article, prepared by a resident of the project, can be read here: https://orda.kz/slomali-i-zapihali-v-malenkij-grob-kak-v-kazahstane-horonjat-bezrodnyh-i-neopoznannye-tela-400525/