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 The separation of family members in natural disasters is a
critical humanitarian concern. The scale of the problem can
be understood when we consider large internal population movements
such as seen in floods in China and India in 2002 with respectively
twenty million and seven million people evacuated from their
homes and livelihoods. Often the primary need of affected
family members is to restore family links; this is usually
more important to the individual than receiving relief assistance.
This was evident in the Rwanda and Krajina (Croatia) large
scale population movements.
Competent contingency planning will reduce
the risk of separated families, or put in place pre-planned
ways in which family members can be aware of the location
and status of family members. In an increasingly ‘global
village’ we may have many nationalities affected by
a disaster, with distant family members desperate for news
of family members. The Asian Tsunami, the Bali, Madrid and
London terrorist bombings have made this restoring family links (RFL) situation increasingly
apparent. Are our national societies equipped to manage the
demands for tracing in such circumstances, as well as providing
psychological support.
Unregistered migrants affected by disasters
are often reticent to come forward for relief assistance,
thus remain unrecorded and unrecognised. This presents a challenge
to the Movement in how we manage family connections when persons
affected by disaster fear for their lack of legal status,
but remain highly vulnerable.
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Disaster management
