What is National Missing Persons Week?
National Missing Persons Week is Australia's major annual missing persons public awareness campaign.  The International Tracing Service of Australian Red Cross is joining non-government tracing organisations, community groups associated with families and friends of missing people and police services around Australia to raise awareness of people who have lost contact with family friends and loved ones.

How many tracing cases does Red Cross accept every year?
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement around the world in 2000, received 6,902 new tracing requests for persons unaccounted for, reunited 2,481 family members, located 2,457 missing people sought by their families, collected 473,789 and distributed 439,776 Red Cross Messages (RCM).

Australian Red Cross handled 1,585 cases for people desperate to restore family links in between 1st July 2001 and 31st June 2002.

In the same period, 848 RCM have been sent to and from Australia.  RCM are unsealed letters containing family news in areas where the postal service is not operational.

What percentage of these people are eventually found?
Last year Australian Red Cross handled 1,585 cases for people desperate to restore family links. Of the cases sent to Australia from sister societies around the world, 1,046 (66 per cent) have been successfully resolved. 

What proportion of those people go missing voluntarily, and what percentage are involuntarily separated from their loved ones by outside forces?
People go missing for a variety of reasons.  They may flee or need to re-settle because of war, conflict or disaster.  For example after World War Two many people fled to Australia.

What are the Australian Red Cross criteria for someone wishing to find someone they believe to be missing?
Australian Red Cross can assist families with family ties to other countries when the separation has occurred as a result of war, internal disturbances, natural and other disasters.  Tracing enquiries of a compassionate nature are also considered.
 
What are some of the possible affects on a person or family when a loved one is missing?
Mental health issues, such as grief and depression, are commonly associated with having missing family.

People may feel helpless in their inability to find their family. Others express feelings of guilt and shame that they are not able to provide for or protect family members displaced by war and conflict, perhaps being separated by large distances (e.g. Australia and Sudan).

Having missing family can be extremely traumatic.  A person with missing family members will often experience feelings of grief, loss, anxiety, bewilderment and pain. 

Maintaining hope that the family member may be alive can be both inspiring and debilitating, in that individuals can never reach a point of acceptance or closure.

This is why the Red Cross tracing and RCM service is so important in assisting people separated by war, conflict and disaster to re-establish contact, or at the very least, clarify the fate of persons unaccounted for so that a family member is able to work through the grieving process and begin to move forward.
 
What methods does Red Cross employ to find people?
For general tracing inquiries Australian Red Cross utilise many different resources, but our main resource is through the international tracing network consisting of the Geneva-based 178-member International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Federation) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

In bringing together separated family members the International Red Cross Movement works closely with National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in 178 countries around the world, using their knowledge and expertise of organisations and community groups within their own countries, as well as with other humanitarian organisations, particularly in areas of war, conflict or disaster.

Do people re-establish contact themselves, or does a third party sometimes identify them and let the Red Cross tracing service know?
Tracing cases are resolved in a variety of ways. Sometimes people will utilise their own community groups and community networks. For example: Someone in the enquirer's community in Australia may have a relative who visited a country overseas and crossed paths with the person sought.  They will then inform them that their family in Australia is looking for them.

If an outsider contacts Red Cross saying I know where this person is, what happens next?
If a third party provides our office with a lead to a sought person our office will carry out a thorough check using the information provided.

Our office will very carefully check the information provided. If a potential sought person is found using this information, we must ensure that every detail of the person we have located matches that of the sought person to ensure that the privacy and confidentiality of both parties is respected.

Once someone is found, is it something that needs to be handled delicately?
Absolutely, family separation happens for a variety of reasons, because of this, Red Cross approaches every person with sensitivity focusing on their need for privacy and confidentiality.

It is very sensitive work.  Some tracing enquiries date back to World War Two and the enquirers and sought people may be very elderly and not have had contact for over fifty years.

What happens if Australian Red Cross finds someone and they do not wish to be located by their family?
Because family separation happens for a variety of reasons, Red Cross respects people's decisions about whether to have contact or not.

It's very important that Red Cross maintains the person's privacy and confidentiality.

What is the longest time that a person has been classified as missing and subsequently found alive?
Australian Red Cross closed a tracing case in 1997 where we successfully reunited two sisters after being separated during World War Two. They had no contact with each other for 57 years.

If contact with a family member or a relative has been lost due to war, conflict or natural disaster, write to the Australian Red Cross Tracing Service in your State or Territory at GPO Box 9949 in your capital city, or freecall 1800 246 850 from anywhere in Australia.