Switzerland has launched a global alliance on missing persons to the raise the profile of the issue. Hundreds of thousands of people are missing around the world due to conflicts or disasters.
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More than 85,000 people who have disappeared in Mexico since the country launched its war on drugs in 2006.
Keystone / Francisco Guasco
The group, which was announced on Tuesday, has already been joined by Argentina and Norway.
Hundreds of thousands of people are missing around the world due to conflicts or disasters.
The new alliance aims to extend the application of global commitments on the matter, boost international collaboration in certain situations and facilitate the exchange of best practices.
Another goal is ensuring that the Central Tracing Agency of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is adequately resourced.
It is important that states with humanitarian credibility come together with those who have “experience of conflict and missing persons”, said Peter Maurer, president of the ICRC.
The ICRC wants stronger political support to address the issue and is implementing new technologies in order to improve its efforts while guaranteeing data protection.
It wants to become the international mechanism for archiving, standardising, accessing and analysing data on missing persons. Switzerland is part of that effort.
Bringing families back together
On Tuesday, Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis hailed the “worldwide success” of the tracing system, noting that it is still “as relevant” and reflects Swiss values of solidarity.
Every minute, the system helps the members of three separated families to talk to each other. Every hour, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement finds two people. Every day, more than 20 people can be reunited with their loved ones.
Falklands War
The number of requests increases yearly. In Syria alone, 20,000 requests have been made to the ICRC by families and an estimated 100,000 people remain missing.
Last year, more than 150,000 requests were pending from all countries. More than 120,000 family messages were sent. And 1,035 people were reunited with their loved ones.
The ICRC is also piloting the identification of soldiers killed during the Falklands War in the 1980s. Dozens of these soldiers were identified in 2017. Further investigations are in the ICRC pipeline.
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