Before her pick up, Allert’s feelings were a mix of excitement and sadness. Excitement because of returning to her parents and homeland while feeling sad to leave the people and place she had called home for years. Although it was a difficult moment, the anticipation of being reunited with her family quickly overcame the sadness.
Oniel Bestman / LNRCS / ICRC
PTP refugee camp, Grand Gedeh, Liberia
Senrine and her caretaker (holding baby) walk towards the ICRC team that arrived in the refugee camp to pick up nine Ivorian children for cross border reunification in Ivory Coast the next day. There was a moment of sorrow for her and her caretaker as they reflected on years spent together. The children are part of hundreds of unaccompanied and separated children that lost contact with their families and came to Liberia years ago as a result of the post-electoral crisis in Ivory Coast.
Varney Bawn /ICRC
Voluntary service in refuge
Ivorian refugees serving as Red Cross tracing volunteers in the camp help separated and unaccompanied children and other refugees make free phone calls to their relatives in Ivory Coast, collect Red Cross messages and help the ICRC register and follow up the children. They played a pivotal role in identifying and documenting the children’s cases as they speak local languages, and act as interpreters between the ICRC staff and refugees who don’t speak French or English.
Oniel Bestman / LNRCS / ICRC
Reconnecting families
Since the reopening of the humanitarian corridor between the borders of Liberia and Ivory Coast in December 2015, the ICRC has brought back 14 Ivorian refugee children to their relatives in Ivory Coast. These family reunifications were made possible through the joint efforts of the ICRC teams and Red Cross volunteers in Liberia and Ivory Coast.
Oniel Bestman / LNRCS / ICRC
ICRC Zwedru sub-delegation, Liberia
ICRC worked with national societies and volunteers to perform direct searches for separated children aged between 10 and 20 years. A poster campaign displaying the photos of the children was launched and a web page on its family-links site was established to search for their relatives. Restoring family links is a core activity of the ICRC.
Oniel Bestman / LNRCS / ICRC
Toe Town border, Grand Gedeh, Liberia
With the presence of more refugees in the Bahn, Wlebbo and PTP refugee camps in Liberia, the ICRC anticipates some ad hoc unaccompanied and separated cases to come up. Through its teams in Liberia and Ivory Coast together with the Liberian and Ivorian National Red Cross Societies, it will provide the same services. These reunifications are possible thanks to the close cooperation of the various authorities and other humanitarian actors involved.
Varney Bawn / ICRC
New hope for Estelle
Estelle (far right) and her sister recalled having to flee from Ivory Coast with their mother in 2011. She could not contain her emotions over the pain of having to flee and the joy of returning home to her own country. “My sister and I left our country running and hiding in bushes before entering Liberia. But today, the ICRC put us in three Land Cruisers and gave us travel papers to cross the border,” she said.
Varney Bawn / ICRC
A snack and car ride before leaving Liberia
Mendor and his sibling Sevenin on board an ICRC Land Cruiser headed for the Loguatuo border where the ICRC team in Liberia would hand them over to the ICRC team in Ivory Coast for reunification with their mother in Floleu, Ivory Coast.
Varney Bawn / ICRC
Loguatuo border, Nimba, Liberia
The children wait on the bridge connecting Liberia and Ivory Coast before being handed over to the Ivory Coast ICRC team.
Varney Bawn/ICRC
Travel documents at Loguatuo border, Nimba, Liberia
The children’s travel documents provided by the ICRC were stamped for departure by the Liberian immigration authorities. The ICRC also gave the children basic items for the journey from Liberia to Ivory Coast.
CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / Rasmina Guehi
Côte d’Ivoire
ICRC teams from Monrovia and Abidjan meet at the Pekan-Barrage border post, with refugee children from the PTP camp (Grand Gedeh county, Liberia), as part of the first reunification operation.
CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / Rasmina Guehi
Côte d’Ivoire
Sandra and Ella reunited with their big brother in their village. A lot of shared emotions.
CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / Rasmina Guehi
Côte d’Ivoire
Arrival at the second reunification site. After Juliette's departure, which was quite sad for the children, they wanted to have this photo taken as a souvenir of their little family group.
CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / Rasmina Guehi
Côte d’Ivoire, Toulepleu
Administrative formalities and health checks were done at the anti-Ebola centre in the Toulepleu general hospital. Some of the children did have some health problems: travel fatigue and malaria. They were treated straight away. Despite being tired and still a few kilometres from her village, Juliette was very happy to be going home: “I can’t wait to see my family. I'm looking forward to going back to school and showing off my new hairstyle and school outfit which was made for me in Liberia.”
Children often get separated from their families in times of armed conflict.
The priority is therefore to reunite them with their families and communities of origin. The ICRC endeavours to do so through its Restoring family links activities, which involves reuniting people with their loved ones after they have been separated by conflict.
It focuses on searching for separated family members, providing family contacts through phone calls and Red Cross messages and ultimately, when possible, reuniting the children with their family. This is made possible thanks to a very large network of Red Cross volunteers who actively look for family members in the most remote areas.
