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Inside Geneva : Day of the Disappeared

October 11th, 2022

Standing Commission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Av. de la Paix 19, 1202 Genève, Suisse

Imogen Foulkes

Swissinfo/Genève Vision

For more than 150 years the ICRC has been re-uniting those separated by war and natural disaster. Inside Geneva visits the Central Tracing Agency.

Florence Anselmo, Head of the Central Tracing Agency: "People going missing, families getting separated, families not knowing what has happened to their loved ones."

Now it’s busy letting Russian and Ukrainian families know what has happened to their sons.

Anastasia Kushleyko, CTA: "I’m calling from the ICRC, I’m calling from Geneva and this is the Central Tracing Agency. As of last week he was safe and well. He’s healthy."

The tracing agency keeps its records forever.

Jelena Milosevic Lepotic: "A grandchild of someone who was in the second world war, you would be able to find information on your grandfather: when he was captured, where he was held, and what happened to him."

Because families will always need to know.

Florence Anselmo: "Families do not stop searching. The need to know crosses generations. If parents do not have answers their children will look for answers and their grandchildren will look for answers."

Nicosia, 1974. Search for the missing: the files of the Central Tracing Agency (ICRC/Max Vaterlaus)