Between hope and despair Study on the stress factors and psychosocial needs of the family members of missing persons Between hope and despair Study on the stress factors and psychosocial needs of the family members of missing persons Carole Berthoud Co-author Therese Bickel-Nikles IM FOKUS Das Schweizerische Rote Kreuz (SRK) GESUNDHEIT engagiert sich seit vielen Jahren in der Grund- MIGRATION lagen- und Projekt arbeit in den Bereichen INTEGRATION Gesundheit, Migration und Integration. «Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out» Václav Havel Imprint: Published by: Swiss Red Cross Project manager: Carole Berthoud Authors: Carole Berthoud, Therese Bickel-Nikles Co-editors: Nicole Windlin, Corinna Bisegger Technical support: Hildegard Hungerbühler English translation: Linda Fagan-Hos Layout: Swiss Red Cross, graphic-print Title of the original text: Zwischen Hoffen und Bangen: Erhebung zu den Belastungssituationen und psychosozialen Bedürfnissen suchender Angehöriger (2013), Bern-Wabern: Swiss Red Cross ©Photo: ICRC/BURGOS, Marina Contact and information: Swiss Red Cross Departement Gesundheit und Integration Abteilung Integration und Rückkehr Rainmattstrasse 10 Postfach CH-3001 Bern [email protected] www.redcross.ch, Publications category This brochure can be downloaded from the Internet as a PDF file. Berne, April 2013 Table of contents Preface ............................................................ 9 1. Introduction ....................................................... 11 2. Scientific basis ..................................................... 15 2.1. Surveys conducted on the family members of missing persons ........ 15 2.2. Psychosocial intervention strategies ............................... 17 3. Methodology ...................................................... 25 3.1. Objectives and questions ........................................ 25 3.2. Approach adopted .............................................. 26 3.3. Selection of samples ............................................. 26 3.4. Challenges and boundaries ....................................... 31 4. Effects of involuntary loss of contact ................................. 33 4.1. Loss of contact owing to migration or flight ........................ 33 4.2. Loss of contact for social or family-related reasons ................... 38 4.3. Stressful situations after the search has ended ....................... 45 5. Resources and coping strategies ..................................... 47 5.1. Loss of contact owing to migration or flight ......................... 47 5.2. Loss of contact for social or family-related reasons: .................. 52 6. Needs of the family members of missing persons ..................... 57 6.1. Needs in relation to the search .................................... 57 6.2. Needs in relation to their personal situation ......................... 58 7. Conclusion and recommendations .................................. 61 7.1. Conclusion ..................................................... 61 7.2. Suggestions for psychosocial support for the family members of missing persons .............................................. 63 8. Bibliography ....................................................... 67 9 Preface The problems associated with the search I remember so well the rescue campaign for missing persons is something that I Switzerland carried out in San Salvador became aware of at a very early age. My following the devastating earthquake of godfather worked in Germany and Aus- 1986 which I was in charge of. A father tria for a few years in the aftermath of the begged me to find his daughter who was Second World War, dealing directly with buried under the rubble of a house and he issues relating to the return of prisoners of knew exactly where to look. He begged war, refugees and displaced persons. He me to do everything I could to find her and used to stay with us during his trips home. to save her. Two days later she was found For years, his work was an impressive topic in the exact spot he had pointed out. But of discussion at the lunch table and in con- sadly she was dead. versations. During the Balkan conflict I made fre- Another tragedy occurred when I was just quent trips to the Balkan states and was twelve years old: a close friend of mine confronted with the many unanswered who lived in our neighbourhood who was questions of the family members of those around 15 years old suddenly went miss- who had gone missing: Where are they? ing. Everybody was extremely concerned, What has happened to them? Have they including my classmates. Thankfully, she been ..., are they…? Could you not, per- was found safe and well after a few days. haps, please...? I have of course dealt with missing per- A few days after the tsunami of December sons and persons who have vanished in 2004, I travelled to Sri Lanka, Indonesia the 35 years in which I worked in humani- and Thailand. I was approached by many tarian aid and at the Swiss Agency for people I did not know including repre- Development and Cooperation. During sentatives of public authorities, asking this time, I often had to deal with the con- continuously if we could not help them to sequences of war and disasters. This search for their missing loved ones. The means that I can relate very closely to Swiss Agency for Development and Coop- issues relating to missing persons in gen- eration was heavily involved in the search eral. for missing persons in the aftermath of 10 the tsunami, some of whom were Swiss one. She was so weak from the lack of nationals, and in identifying victims of the food and water and from walking that she tsunami. had to leave her baby son at the side of the road one week before she reached the When I visited a women’s prison in Libya, I camp. She said she was too weak to carry met illegal immigrants who had been held him. She said she was now living in the there for months. They had no idea what hope that somebody would bring him to was going to happen to them. A young the camp. Yet she feared he was dead. woman told me with tears pouring down her face that she had fled Libya with her All these encounters and fates of people husband and son on a boat, hoping to have made an indelible impression on me. reach France or Spain. She said that every- It is difficult to fully grasp what the family one on the boat had been tossed over- members of missing loved ones have to go board just off the coast. She lost sight of through and endure. This explains why I her husband and son in the darkness and fully back the endeavours undertaken by she never heard from them again. She said the SRC Tracing Service to provide better she keeps asking about them but nobody support to these unfortunate people. This is giving her any information. report is an important step in the right direction. I sincerely hope that the find- A female refugee from Somalia whom I ings of this report will inspire not just the spoke to in August 2011 is another person Swiss Red Cross but other institutions as I will never forget. I met her at Dadaab ref- well. ugee camp in Kenya where hundreds of thousands of people live. She had fled Toni Frisch Somalia around four weeks before with Swiss Red Cross her two sons, one aged six, the other aged Member of the Red Cross Council 11 1. Introduction The Tracing Service of the Swiss Red Cross In the past four years, the personnel and (SRC) is available to all persons who are working fields of the SRC Tracing Service looking for missing relative or loved one1. have been expanded. Internal processes In the year 2011, the SRC Tracing Service have been optimised and external public received 556 new search requests. Around relations work has been carried out in 50 percent of these requests were filed by order to raise awareness of the work per- persons residing in Switzerland, the formed by the SRC Tracing Service among remaining requests came from persons interested parties. This has led to a rele- living in other countries. 49 percent of the vant increase in the number of search search requests were submitted by per- requests filed. The head of the SRC Tracing sons who had lost contact with a loved Service has also intensified cooperation one owing to conflicts and disasters, with organisations both at home and 24 percent owing to migration. 27 percent abroad. A networking and exchange plat- of the persons filing a search request had form has, for instance, been set up for lost contact with their loved one for social organisations in Switzerland that are reasons. The last category includes search involved in the search for missing persons. requests owing to family-related events Furthermore, the exchange with the Inter- (adoption, family conflicts etc.) as well as national Committee of the Red Cross loss of contact caused by Switzerland’s (ICRC) and other national Red Cross socie- social policy, indentured child labourers as ties has been enhanced within the frame- well as victims of «administrative deten- work of the «Restoring Family Links» net- tion». work. Following this phase of consolidation, the plan is now to optimise the services that are currently available and in particular to expand psychosocial support2 services for 1 This study mainly refers to the «family members of missing persons». This applies to persons who would like to restore contact with a family member or loved one who has gone missing. The definition of 2 In this publication, «psychosocial support» is perceived the «family member of missing persons» is deliber- as a broad spectrum of intervention and assistance ately held rather vague; thus it covers all situations in geared towards helping persons with psychological which the SRC Tracing Service becomes involved. and social problems to re-integrate into society It does not specify whether the loss of contact is invol- and to cope with everyday life. The aim is to mobilise untary or not for the person who is missing. existing (inner and outer) resources and to strength- en their coping abilities. 12 Study on the stress factors and psychosocial needs of the family members of missing persons clients.