ACTIVITIES IN FAVOUR OF MISSING PERSONS AND THEIR INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (ICRC) FAMILIES The ICRC continues to promote the creation of mechanisms that respond to the ACTION & RESULTS: January 2014 – August 2014 dierent needs of the families of persons missing due to migration, past conicts or current violence in the region. The ICRC’s operational priorities in North and Central America focus on the protection of and assistance to communities and individuals most vulnerable to and aected by armed violence; in particular migrants, missing persons and their families. ACTIVITIES IN FAVOUR OF Family Links (RFL) programme’s services and Results MIGRANTS network and assists those with serious injuries or amputations. The RFL eorts include the Basic medical care Responding to their protection and services provided by the American Red Cross, assistance needs From January to August of 2014, over which has set up phone services in shelters on 18,700 migrants received aid at Mexican An internal study on the humanitarian the United States of America’s (U.S.) side of the Red Cross Society/ICRC assistance points; consequences of armed violence in Mexico border with Mexico, oering free international 17,042 of whom received basic medical undertaken in 2011 by the ICRC indicated that phone calls to migrants seeking to contact care. This aid includes assistance provided migrants are amongst the most vulnerable their relatives. at the new project in Tijuana, Baja populations and in greatest need for In mid-2014, the ICRC initiated a one-year accompaniment project in Mexico, Basic health care is provided in mobile or California, inaugurated in March 2014. protection. To help address the situation, the Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, with some 60 families of missing permanent facilities and through mobile Another 3,749 repatriated migrants ICRC launched a humanitarian programme migrants. The project emphasizes a psychosocial approach that seeks to brigades run by the Mexican Red Cross, and benetted from similar services in El aiming to meet the basic needs (health, clean strengthen the abilities of individuals and families to overcome a wide array of located at strategic points along the migration Carmen, Guatemala (including 89 rst aid water, and contact with their families) of diculties related to the disappearance of a loved one, providing pertinent route in Mexico, as well as at deportation services and 433 referrals and migrants and to work towards reducing their information and resources, as well as to put them in contact with authorities points along the U.S.-Mexico border. In transportation to the Tecún Umán migrant vulnerability. The ICRC works in close responsible for providing a response to these needs. cooperation with the ICRC, similar services are shelter), as well as 17,900 migrants who collaboration with the Red Cross National provided by the Guatemalan Red Cross received assistance in Corinto, Honduras Societies of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras The ICRC also supported several Mexican institutions by training 135 ocials on Society located in El Carmen (at the border (including rst aid assistance for 610 to respond to some of the needs of migrants a psychosocial approach to interacting with families of missing persons. with Mexico) as well as by the Honduran Red migrants, the distribution of 17,011 along the migration route from Central to Cross Society in Corinto (at the border with hygiene kits, food for unaccompanied North America. In the case of deceased individuals where family members have no information, Guatemala), where migrants repatriated from child migrants, and assistance and The programme provides migrants with the ICRC advises, facilitates and trains authorities responsible for the Mexico are assisted. transportation to housing for particularly drinking water and orientation, facilitates their identication process. The ICRC encourages coordination among forensic vulnerable migrants). contact with relatives through the Restoring authorities at a national and regional level, and oers technical advice in order to improve the ability to identify human remains and strengthen forensic services. The ICRC supports authorities in the implementation of a data management system for the missing and the deceased who are unidentied, as well as the The ICRC is working with the Mexican Attorney General’s Oce (PGR) authorities in Mexico, the Ministry of Foreign Aairs, the National Institute of Forensic Science and the Public Prosecutor's Oce of Guatemala, as well as the Institute of Legal Medicine of El Salvador and of Honduras. This collaboration has allowed for the creation of protocols, improvement in the quality of standardization in the data collection of missing persons (using the AMPM database), always in view of a regionally integrated process. The ICRC addresses the issue of missing persons and migrants in regional fora such as the Organization of American States (OEA) and the Regional Conference on Migration (RCM). development and implementation of forensic protocols, policy analysis, standardized data collection and the use of the Ante-mortem/Post-mortem (AMPM) data management software. Support is also being provided to strengthen the authorities’ capacity to support and accompany the families of missing persons (amongst whom, hose of missing migrants). Furthermore, donations of water lters and solar heaters allow for a more sustainable use of resources and a reduction in operational costs for shelters. In October, a hygiene promotion campaign was launched to reduce preventable diseases. In Honduras, improvements were also made in the conditions of reception of deported migrants through the rehabilitation of the toilet facilities in two centres managed by authorities, as well as through the donation of Delivery of a RFL message in the mountain region of Guerrero humanitarian assistance to the El Edén shelter, in San Pedro Sula, which welcomes repatriated The American Red Cross Society also provided Restoring Family Links (RFL) migrants minors and migrant families that rst aid and water purication supplies to an were deported by land. In Mexico, more than 1,700 migrants were able Arizona desert camp, close to the border with to contact their family members thanks to Mexico. ICRC-funded telephone services, either at Assistance to individuals injured, with amputations or seriously ill. Mexican Red Cross Society/ICRC assistance In order to address the |need of thousands of points or through new projects in shelters in unaccompanied migrant minors to contact ACTIVITIES IN FAVOUR OF MISSING PERSONS AND THEIR The ICRC provided migrants with serious the states of Chiapas and Coahuila, in their families while under the custody of the FAMILIES injuries or amputations (often a consequence southern and northeast Mexico. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the of falling from the La Bestia cargo train) with The ICRC continues to promote the creation of mechanisms that respond to the nine calling-card dispensers were installed in American Red Cross with the support of the crutches, walking sticks, wheelchairs, surgical dierent needs of the families of persons missing due to migration, past conicts various shelters in Mexico. ICRC implemented a phone call project in a material and transportation to facilities in or current violence in the region. mass CBP processing centre located in Mexico or their country of origin. Twenty-two In Corinto, Honduras, 4,899 migrants were Nogales, Arizona. The project lasted ve weeks individuals with serious injuries benetted able to contact their family members through and facilitated 14,000 phone calls during this from these services, while 20 individuals with the free telephone services. Beginning in July, period. a group of Honduran Red Cross volunteers amputations received or will receive physical managed the free phone call services for Assistance in sanitation, water rehabilitation and prosthetics from institu- migrants deported in the shelter El Edén, in and habitat tions supported by the ICRC in Mexico, El San Pedro Sula. Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Further- In cooperation with the Red Cross National more, physiotherapists from the region Societies of Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, In El Carmen, Guatemala, 3,555 migrants benetted from ICRC training in lower limb drinking water was distributed to 50,000 re-established contact with their families amputation management sponsored by the migrants over the last eight months. The ICRC thanks to RFL services. Support was also ICRC in Colombia. provided to 71 families of repatriated supported the Mexican Red Cross Society in unaccompanied migrant minors at the rehabilitating its water purication equipment In Guatemala, eight cases of migrants who Nuestras Raices migrant shelters in and improved its capacity for both drinking were repatriated while ill were channelled In mid-2014, the ICRC initiated a one-year accompaniment project in Mexico, Quetzaltenango and Guatemala City, water production and distribution. through the humanitarian aid chain in coordi- Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, with some 60 families of missing providing families with fare to pick-up their nation with the Guatemalan Red Cross. migrants. The project emphasizes a psychosocial approach that seeks to children and return together to their places of In Honduras, the ICRC coordinates a network strengthen the abilities of individuals and families to overcome a wide array of residence. aimed at providing better support to ampu-