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ICRC's Central Tracing Agency Bureau for the International Armed Conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine

Families / Mechanisms / The Search Process
Central Tracing Agency (CTA) / Combatant / Family Needs / Protecting/Restoring Family Links

The Central Tracing Agency Bureau for the International Armed Conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine is the first dedicated team of this kind to have been set up by the ICRC’s Central Tracing Agency since the 2003 Gulf War, and the largest such team since the Second World War.

 

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28 Nov 2023
Russia,
Europe and Central Asia
ICRC | CTA

The Central Tracing Agency Bureau for the International Armed Conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine is the first dedicated team of this kind to have been set up by the ICRC’s Central Tracing Agency since the 2003 Gulf War, and the largest such team since the Second World War. The bureau acts as a neutral intermediary between the two sides. It collects, analyses, safeguards and transmits information – from one side to the other – on military personnel and civilians, dead or alive, of whom their families are awaiting news. It also works tirelessly to remind both states of their legal obligations to share information on all persons in their hands. Since its launch, the bureau has received some 100,000 phone calls, emails, letters and in-person visits from families torn apart by the international armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. A year and a half later, people looking for relatives who have gone missing or from whom they have become separated continue to contact the bureau in their hundreds every week, in an attempt to obtain information on the fate of their loved ones. These people are distressed, angry and frustrated, certainly, but they are also hopeful that they will finally get some news.