New ICRC website
reunites dispersed families
By ICRC
November 12, 2012
GENEVA – War,
disaster and migration separate thousands of family members every
year.
To help members of dispersed
families restore contact with each other, the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) is launching a new website –
familylinks.icrc.org – on 13 November.
"Familylinks.icrc.org will
change the way people go about getting back in touch with family
members they've become separated from," said Olivier Dubois, deputy
head of the Central Tracing Agency and Protection Division of the ICRC.
"Staying in touch with other members of one's family has a huge effect
on a person's well-being and their ability to cope with a crisis. We
have developed this simple, user-friendly website together with
national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies for people who want to
restore contact with relatives during or after a crisis," he
explained. "A few clicks will put them in touch with dedicated
specialists who will provide personal follow-up on enquiries."
Regardless of whether people
are fleeing armed conflict, other violence, natural disaster, poverty
or other causes of hardship, displacement can cause them to be cut off
from their loved ones. Whatever the reason for a person's struggles,
staff and volunteers of the Red Cross and Red Crescent network strive
to ensure that they are treated with dignity, respect and compassion.
"What makes the new
familylinks.icrc.org website special is the way it combines suitable
technology and unique resources," explained Mr Dubois. "The
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has a grassroots
network of volunteers already on the ground, in virtually every corner
of the world, who actively search for missing persons. No other
organization in the world can provide such a service."
One example of the strength
of the grassroots network is provided by the story of a Libyan man who
fled his country in 1968 and settled in Switzerland. For decades, he
was totally cut off from relatives and friends. This year, with help
from the ICRC and the Swiss Red Cross, he was able to get back in
contact with his loved ones in Libya and go visit them. "Seeing your
family again after 43 years – it's like being born again," said Mr Al
Naji, overwhelmed by emotion as he set foot on Libyan soil.
"Many more people will be
able to find out what services are available and how to obtain them.
We may well see an increase in the number of tracing requests," said
Mr Dubois. The new website will provide information on tracing
services available in every part of the world, contact details of
national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and ICRC delegations,
and other useful resources. While the chief purpose of
familylinks.icrc.org will be to serve people searching for loved ones,
the website may also be of interest to humanitarian organizations and
welfare service providers to whom these people have turned for help.
The site will also serve as a platform for exchanges between tracing
specialists.
Under international law,
people have the right to be informed of the fate of missing relatives.
Where appropriate, everything possible must be done to find out where
they are, restore contact with them and reunite them with their
families.
The ICRC launched its first
website of this kind in 1996 in response to the Bosnia conflict. The
organization has since set up ad hoc sites in response to 23 crises,
most recently in connection with last year's tsunami in Japan. Over
the years, these efforts have helped countless people restore contact
with relatives.