When family contact is lost after a disaster
Keep immediate safety, reliable updates, and appropriate tracing services distinct.
AI-assistedA disaster can interrupt communication without immediately explaining what happened to each person. Prioritize your own safety and follow local emergency instructions. If there is an immediate threat or an urgent report to make, use the relevant local emergency service.
Keep a factual contact record
Write the last confirmed contact, the person's known location at that time, and the channels tried since. Distinguish a failed connection from a confirmed event. Avoid publishing an unverified account of injury or death based on a forwarded list.
If you are safe and able, send a short message through an appropriate channel to your agreed contact. Do not expose a sensitive current location publicly if that creates risk.
Look for the right service
The ICRC and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Family Links Network support communication and tracing in humanitarian situations. Their work can include helping separated relatives exchange news. Contact the appropriate official service to ask whether your situation falls within its scope.
Prepare a concise inquiry
- Your relationship to the relative.
- Last confirmed contact and location.
- Relevant dates and spellings of names.
- A safe way to reach you.
Provide further personal details only through the service's requested process. Do not post a complete private tracing request into a public group.
A Wakif report may be one supporting source where appropriate, but it does not replace disaster-response or humanitarian tracing systems. Keep the family coordinator informed about which services have been contacted and any reference numbers received.