Red Cross ‘missing persons’ service has helped millions

Press, 24 October 1980, Page 13

Red Cross ‘missing persons’ service has helped millions

By

VICKI FUREY

Hungry, homeless, and sick, the Vietnamese boat people have been arriving on the beaches of SouthEast Asia in their thousands during the past five years. Many have been separated from family and friends in the hazardous journey across the South China Sea. Most end up in camps, with no idea of where their relatives are, let alone whether they are still alive. For “security reasons” they are not allowed outside the camp to post a letter. This is where th'e Red Cross comes in. The trac-

ing of refugees and pns-oners-of-war is one of its least known, yet one of its most important, tasks. Because the Red Cross ' is internationally accepted as neutral, it can obtain lists of refugees and pris-oners-of-war from the countries involved. Seven years after the foundation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, an international tracing agency was set up in Basle during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Although intended primarily to give material and " medical assistance, a special information and relief office for prisoners was opened — the first time in history that families were given news of close relatives captured in war.

The Red Cross continued this role in the 1912-13 Balkan War, the . First World War and the Second World War. Between 1939 and May, 1945, more than 110 million inquiries about prisoners-of-war were received. The job did not end in 1945. Millions of civilians were forcibly shifted from . their homelands during the Second World War. Thousands of families were ’separated; the work of tracing these and pris-oners-of-war continues even in the 1980 s, The index at the Red Cross’s Central Tracing

Agency in Geneva contains more than 50 million cards referring to some 15 million individual cases. The Red Gros's still receives more than 65,000 letters a year from all parts of the world asking it to trace a missing person, or families separated by wars. For practical and linguistic.' reasons the index is divided into . sections. The largest of these, the German, has more than 10 million cards, the French six million, and the Italian five million.

A 11 prisoners-of-war lists sent to the agency by belligerent countries dur-

ing the two world wars were transcribed on to the index, as are the names of civilians displaced as a result of war. The agency also draws up lists of pris-oners-of-war, missing persons, refugees, and stateless persons drawn from information obtained from various official and private sources. . The agency keeps all the information it receives. The documents on. its' files are a unique source, of information which is consulted constantly by thousands of people affected by the war and its consequences.

Hundreds of certificates are delivered each year to those who need proof, for example, that they were detained, imprisoned, or sick during their imprisonment in order for them to claim pensions, relief, or allowances. But 35 years after the war the job of tracing missing persons is becoming increasingly complicated. •It needs painstaking and exhaustive study in the card indexes and repeated inquiries in various countries.

Spelling often causes a problem and the frequent use of homonyms com-

plicates the work. The German card index contains 50,000 Meyers, 50,000 Mullers (10 per cent of whom are' called Hans,) and the Smiths, Jones, and Browns number tens of thousands. Recently 17.5 million of the cards were put on microfilm. These related to the two world wars and more recent conflicts but were' rarely consulted and no longer had to be brought up to date. All the information contained on the 680 kg 'of records was put on 18 reels of 16mm film, weighing about 150 g.

People throughout the world were horrified by tales of the Vietnamese boat people. Relief agencies and governments rushed in to provide material assistance for the thousands of displaced persons living in the refugee camps of South-East Asia. Yet more than this was required. The refugees had to be given the chance to contact their families.

In 1979, offices • of -Hie tracing . agency- were opened by the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the area — for most this was an entirely new undertaking. Specialised staff from the Central Tracing Agency were seconded to train local personnel in tracing

methods and to act as advisors.

In one of the cases a young man left Vietnam on a fishing boat, along with several dozen others. They were finally allowed to land in Malaysia and were transferred to the refugee camp on the island of Bidong. The young man knew his brother was living in Australia and to join him. The problem was that he could not leave the camp to post a letter. He was told to apply to the Tracing and Mailing Service of the Malaysian Red Crescent Society. The, society had opened the office in February, 1979. Later, the young man’s sister also fled from Vietnam — she ended up in a camp on- Pulau Galang in Indonesia. Her immediate concern was to find her brother. She knew that he

had left Vietnam and even had the registration number of the boat on which he sailed,' but had no idea of where he had landed or even whether he was alive.

She was told to inquire through the tracing and mailing agency of the‘lndonesian Red Cross. Eventually it was' discovered that the boat had landed in Malaysia and the inquiry was directed to the traci. v , and mailing agency in Kuala Lumpur, where information on her brother was held. He. was contacted at a transit camp on his way to Australia. Through the efforts of the Red Cross contact was re-established between the two. The service is often, needed closer to home. Every week people contact the New Zealand Red Cross for news of family

or friends missing overseas; or other national societies and sometimes the Central Tracing Agency contact the Red Cross headquarters in Wellington.

All information is confidential. Permission is always sought from the person concerned before information is passed on.

An Australian woman on holiday in New Zealand broke a leg and was admitted to a West Coast hospital. Her brother in Perth knew of the accident but had been unable to obtain details. He contacted the Australian Red Cross which in turn contacted Wellington. By the end of the day ■the man had full details of his sister’s condition. While in hospital for several weeks she was visited regularly by Red Cross volunteers.