Dead and buried?

[Maik]

Why Greeks are exhuming their parents

Cemeteries in Greek cities are so overcrowded that bodies are often only kept in the ground for three years. Then families have to pay for exhumation - and for the bones to be kept in a building known as an ossuary. But many cannot afford to pay even for this limited degree of dignity in death.

Katerina Kitsiou stands weeping by her father's grave in Thessaloniki's main cemetery. She has come to watch as her father Christodoulos is exhumed.

He was buried seven years ago, but his children cannot pay for his grave any longer.

"We paid for an extra four years to keep him there but we cannot afford it any more," says Katerina.

It's clear that for her the occasion is deeply upsetting.

Over the last 50 years, Greece's urban population has exploded. More than half the country's people are now concentrated in the two biggest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki. Urban development has left cemeteries encircled, with no room to expand.

That's why graves are now usually rented on a three-year lease with an escalating price scale for any additional years. The prohibitive costs are meant to act as a deterrent so that the space can be reused.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34920068