Many State authorities dealing with the missing and the dead have systems in place for managing such cases. With minimal adjustments, these systems can be adapted to address the specific challenges relating to missing and deceased migrants.

People leave their homes for many reasons including political instability, environmental hazards or economic hardship. Some will be seeking asylum; others will be in pursuit of better opportunities for work. Unfortunately, many go missing in a variety of circumstances, either on their journey or once they arrive in their destination country. They may be detained without access to any means of communication, or they or their families may choose not to seek assistance for fear it may lead to deportation. They may also die during their dangerous journey or after arrival in their destination country. It is important that these vulnerable migrants and refugees are not forgotten.

Seeking to reduce the high number of missing migrants and unidentified deceased individuals in the Southern Africa region, primarily between South Africa and Zimbabwe, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) undertook a pilot project entitled the Missing and Deceased Migrants Program from 2016 to 2018. The project entailed working with South African and Zimbabwean authorities to complement their existing systems, tools and resources used to locate missing persons, whether living or deceased. The objectives of the project were to provide families of missing and deceased migrants with answers about the fate of their loved ones; to restore the identity and dignity of deceased persons and enable the return of their human remains to their loved ones for proper burial; and to improve the manner in which families, public authorities and forensic practitioners share information used to search for and identify missing and deceased migrants.

The initial phase involved engaging with State authorities and community groups to better understand the problem. This was followed by registering missing persons cases by conducting interviews with families of migrants from the Zaka and Gwanda districts in Zimbabwe who had gone missing in South Africa. During the interviews, information on the possible whereabouts of the missing migrants and personal data which could be used to assist in identification were collected and compiled as a tracing request (for enquiries within South African communities) and an accompanying missing persons information form was completed (for search through authority databases and ongoing enquiries). During the pilot phase, tracing requests and missing persons forms were compiled for 61 missing migrants, with 15 of these people subsequently being located and reunited with their families. The pilot project confirmed that when there is an accessible conduit for reporting missing relatives, families will readily participate. Furthermore, families can provide useful missing persons information that is pertinent for tracing enquiries and which can also be entered into the various databases managed by authorities to complement efforts in identifying deceased persons.

For any identification to be successful there needs to be sufficient information to enable comparisons and matching. We also need to recognise that some of the missing migrants may have died after their arrival in South Africa. While no formal numbers are reported, officials have estimated that up to 10,000 unidentified persons – many of whom are believed to be migrants and refugees – are buried annually by South African authorities. To address this issue, the ICRC collaborated with the authorities to enhance the forensic identification procedures used in one of the leading high-throughput mortuaries in the country, dealing with up to 3,000 cases of unnatural deaths each year. This involved: introducing secondary examinations for the purpose of identification conducted after completion of autopsies; standardising forms and processes; and training practitioners and forensic students. These practitioners took radiographs and documented and photographed unique identifying features such as scars, skin marks, tattoos, piercings, malformations and amputations. This information, a set of fingerprints and a DNA sample were submitted to authorities for use in searches through their databases. This specialised forensic team processed 128 unidentified bodies during this time; of those who underwent secondary examinations, 57 identifications were confirmed – a success rate of 44%. An interesting observation made during this pilot was that these secondary examinations increased the identification rates for both foreign nationals and South African citizens alike, thereby providing a clear benefit to authorities, especially considering these unidentified bodies are buried as ‘paupers’ at the State’s expense, placing a heavy financial strain on State resources.

Developing a programme from the pilot

The pilot project offered significant promise. The ICRC had demonstrated the immediate success of applying a holistic approach to ensuring both that families in Zimbabwe were able to provide information about their missing relatives and that post-mortem information could be properly collected from unidentified deceased persons at one of the busiest mortuaries in South Africa. This allowed for the pilot to be developed into a low-cost programme (with structured coordination of forensic pathology services, law enforcement, universities, Red Cross National Societies and the community, complemented by digital community support tools) that enables States to collect and share missing persons information with neighbouring States who are dealing with the responsibility of identifying the dead[1]. The programme also introduced the standardisation of forms and processes, and the establishment of the Human Decedent Identification Unit at the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Service which, through the committed efforts of its specialised forensic staff and students, continues to conduct secondary identifications and identify individuals who might otherwise have remained unidentified. These efforts have led to a 22% increase in the overall identification rate.

As part of the process of developing the pilot into a programme, training was conducted in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Republic Police for their staff (at both provincial and headquarters level) on the procedure to follow when families report persons who have gone missing in another country. This was critical as many police staff were not aware that they could accept these cases, nor of the procedure to follow to share this information with the authorities in South Africa. The existing Interpol system makes provision for countries to submit yellow notices (for a missing person) and black notices (for a deceased person) allowing for the sharing of information across borders. To assist with the dissemination of this information to all provinces in Zimbabwe, the ICRC collaborated with Interpol to produce an information leaflet and posters detailing the steps to be taken. The cases compiled during the pilot phase were also registered with the authorities to assign them an official reference number and were submitted to Interpol to be passed on to South Africa.

The ICRC also considered the fact that many migrants and their families may be hesitant to come forward or engage with authorities regarding their missing relatives, especially where they are undocumented. The ICRC therefore worked closely with their partners, the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society and the South African Red Cross Society, to empower them to act as intermediaries between the families and the authorities. The Red Cross Societies have many trusted volunteers in communities and often act as auxiliaries to the State. These volunteers were trained in collecting missing persons data from families, which was then shared with the Zimbabwe authorities for submission through the official system. Similarly, volunteers in South Africa are well placed to obtain information from vulnerable communities that may assist the authorities in the resolution of cases – information that individuals are often hesitant to share with authorities. All these steps are critical to ensure that the programme, now referred to as the Transnational Approach to the Missing and Dead, can be handed over to authorities and maintained. This will be supported by Oversight Committees in both countries comprising members from relevant government departments, who will be responsible for governing and guiding the programme.

Reflections

Programmes to address the issue of missing or deceased persons are most effectively managed when undertaken in collaboration with the authorities mandated to investigate such cases. These initiatives typically require only minimal resources and can often be implemented with straightforward measures, such as providing training and basic equipment. Collaboration with other civil society organisations is highly recommended, particularly when authorities lack the necessary human or material resources or where those who have pertinent information lack trust in authorities. Given its low cost and simplicity, this programme can be readily adapted and replicated in other resource-limited countries.

 

Lucinda Evert
Forensic Specialist for Southern Africa, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
levert@icrc.org
linkedin.com/in/lucinda-evert-1475b4204/

Stephen Fonseca
Manager, African Centre for Medicolegal Systems, ICRC
sfonseca@icrc.org
linkedin.com/in/stephen-fonseca-52197b180/

Vaughn Rossouw
Legal Advisor, African Centre for Medicolegal Systems, ICRC
vrossouw@icrc.org
linkedin.com/in/adv-vaughn-rossouw-8b426312a/

 

[1] Keyes, Craig Adam, Trisha-Jean Mahon and Allison Gilbert (2022) ‘Human Decedent Identification Unit: identifying the deceased at a South African medico-legal mortuary’ International Journal of Legal Medicine Vol 136: 1889-1896

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