Panama: Calls and messages that relieve

Darien, Panama. Can you imagine that a loved one has to migrate or is forced to migrate and you don't hear from that person for days?

Anguish, fear, uncertainty, and despair would be part of the emotions that would be installed in your life. That is why maintaining contact between family members is of vital importance, in any circumstance.

Migrants need to communicate frequently with their loved ones, telling them that they are alive and safe.

In many parts of the world, this region being no exception, migration as a phenomenon is becoming increasingly complex. Migrants represent a vulnerable part of the population exposed to separations and disappearances, which is a huge emotional whirlwind for families who, in connection with it, enter into a race to reconnect or to know the whereabouts of their loved ones.

The Restoring Family Links (RFL) service is part of a response by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, notably through an operational partnership between the ICRC and National Societies in countries impacted by migratory routes. The aim is to help migrants by providing them with the means of communication to inform their families of their whereabouts and maintain contact with their loved ones.

Through the RFL program, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement helps thousands of people to maintain or re-establish contact with their loved ones, thus preventing disappearances. This is done through telephone calls, written messages, internet connection, among other services.

The ICRC is a neutral, impartial, and independent humanitarian organization that, together with the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of each country, works, among other things, to locate missing persons, restore family links, enable the exchange of messages between relatives and clarify the fate of persons whose whereabouts are unknown as a result of armed conflict, other situations of violence and/or migratory flows connected with these contexts.

In Panama, the ICRC, through its Regional Delegation for Panama and the Caribbean, supports RFL services in conjunction with the Panamanian Red Cross (PRC).