Who are the Missing?
There is no definition of the term missing person under international law.
In the context of ICMP’s work, a missing person is anyone in need of being located for reasons beyond that person’s control. There are many contexts in which persons go missing.
In the field of armed conflict an extraordinary shift occurred during the 20th century that has compounded the problem of missing persons. A ratio of 10 civilian deaths for every combatant killed has been reported for wars fought since the mid-20th century.
By contrast, for World War I that ratio has been estimated at nine combatant deaths for each civilian killed. Battlefields have spread into villages, towns, and cities, and the physical abuse of civilian populations has become an objective and an instrument of war. This encroachment of violence into the non-combatant sphere has produced an exponential rise in the number of civilians missing in conflict. Some examples in recent decades are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine.
Authoritarian regimes continue to use the practice of “enforced disappearance” as an instrument of social and political control. Since illegal arrest and detention is, by its nature, devoid of accountability or due process, families of those who have been “disappeared” have no recourse to the law. The absence of the victim and the anonymity of the perpetrators makes this a crime that is both sinister and very hard to combat.
Natural disasters, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2023 Türkiye-Syria earthquake, or the 2023 Libya Floods, have left tens of thousands missing. There are few reliable statistics regarding the numbers of persons who go missing every year as a result of disasters. However, the increased frequency of destructive weather patterns and seismic events has added to the total number of persons missing globally.
The rise of drug cartels around the world, often in contexts where paramilitary groups are active and security forces are indiscriminately engaged, has resulted in an epidemic of intimidation, murder, and disappearance.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that there were around 281 million international migrants in the world in 2020, compared to 128 million in 1990 and more than three times the figure in 1970. Since 2014, according to IOM, 60,253 migrants have gone missing, including 28,248 who went missing in the Mediterranean. The number of recorded deaths is likely to be a fraction of the actual figure, since irregular migration is largely undocumented and underreported. Thousands go missing every year on journeys across inhospitable terrain, on the high seas aboard unsuitable and overcrowded vessels, and crossing dangerous borders often at the mercy of criminal gangs.
A report published in 2021, by the International Labor Organization and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration estimated that 27.7 million people around the world were victims of people trafficking. Trafficking and smuggling are fundamentally different. Traffickers detain and coerce their victims before, during, and after transportation inside countries and across borders. In such cases, a “disappearance” may occur even before the victim begins their journey.
The overwhelming majority of persons missing from armed conflict are male, and men are also the principal victims in cases related to organized crime. However, people traffickers connected to the global sex industry disproportionately target women.
The gendered impact of enforced disappearance is also evident among survivors. Women often have to assume the role of head of household, which entails numerous additional challenges in, for example, predominantly patriarchal societies; mothers leaving their traditional roles to seek income also impacts children and young people in decisive ways.
In the mother´s absence, traditional roles demand that young women and girls take on domestic work including the care of young children. This perpetuates limitations on women and reduces their opportunities for study or professional development; administrative obstacles faced by women survivors include issues related to property ownership, inheritance, and the guardianship of children among other things; legislation to provide legal security is inadequate and impacts the families of missing persons, and women in particular; symptoms of chronic physical and psychological trauma and mental anguish persist in women who do not know the fate of their missing relatives; and women whose male family members are missing may be seen by men in their own communities as being more vulnerable and may therefore be at risk of unwanted male advances.
Moreover, women searching for or advocating for missing family members have faced reprisals. Female relatives of missing persons often dedicate long hours and large sums of money towards finding their missing relatives. This imposes an additional burden and additional stress on wives and mothers who have already taken on the duties of husbands or fathers.
