NEW YORK: The International Committee of the Red Cross has set up a special bureau in charge of locating people missing in the Ukraine conflict in a step not seen since World War II, ICRC spokesperson in Kyiv, Achille Despres, told Sputnik.
“Keeping families connected in times of war is one of the main missions of the ICRC since our founding,“ Despres told Sputnik. “And we have, for this particular international conflict, established a bureau of our central tracing agency, (and) that’s the first time that we have done that since the Second World War.”
He added that it is similar to the system of filling in cards and sending them to the Red Cross during World War I and II – except that it is now digitalised.
People who have relatives or loved ones who are missing can contact the ICRC bureau and file a request. Then, the ICRC will check its systems based on the information that it gets from the parties to the conflict. The organisation cannot verify information from social media, as it can be subject to manipulation or misinformation.
The special bureau was established in March of 2022 and has so far received around 50,000 inquiries. The ICRC has a team in Geneva that operates a call centre where people can call about their loved ones, and that gets around 800 calls a day.
“It’s just incredibly painful. And sometimes the fact of not knowing is even worse. People need answers and this is what we tell the parties to the conflict,“ Despres said.
The ICRC spokesperson said the organisation has so far contacted people 4,000 times via email or by phone, saying they know where their loved ones are.
On January 1, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric announced she will visit Russia and meet with Russian authorities. The visit comes after her four-day trip to Ukraine, where she met with civilians from the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.-Bernama