 By now, the numbers and scenes of people disappearing as they attempt to cross political borders to reach safety and better opportunities in other countries have become common in the news. At least 40,000 people have died or disappeared on migration routes worldwide, according to the Missing Migrants Project, which is based at the International Organization for Migration's Data Analysis Center in Berlin. The project has documented these tragedies since 2014, but those who are not talked about as much are the mothers, fathers, siblings and friends of those who have died or gone missing. Their lives are immensely affected by these disappearances. In this episode of Living Without Them, Stories of Families Left Behind, we hear about the families of the missing in the UK. So I live and I work in London. The UK in general is a very multicultural society. I don't think you can come to the UK and not find at least one person from a country or territory from somewhere in the world. This is Sia Konde. She lives in London, where an estimated 35% of the population is foreign born. Sia too has a migration background. I am a diaspora myself. I migrated to the UK as a child. So being who I am as a diaspora and the work I do on migration and development with diaspora communities in a city that I live in, in London, a city of nine plus million people with over 180 nationalities. I see my work in my everyday. For example, in the Portuguese person from whom I buy my lunch and when I walk into a cafe, for example, owned by a Syrian experiencing new art from Yemen and listening to sort of music from the South Asian community in the UK and maybe even learning more about say Ethiopian cuisine from visiting an Ethiopian restaurant. And so these three different areas of my life, my identity, my work, my daily experiences sort of merge in my everyday. She works at the International Organization for Migrations UK office. Where among other things, she undertakes projects and research on migration and development. In the past year, she also researched the policy and legal structures in the UK relevant to people who have missing migrant relatives. At one point, I had about six or seven interviews lined up on one day, which I couldn't complete. So I was indeed surprised by the number of people affected by this issue. This is Dr. Samuel Okiere, senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Bristol, who led the research with families in our study. The project sought to learn from people who are in the UK and who have missing migrant relatives. We wanted to learn how they research for information leading to their loved ones, how such a loss impacts their lives and how they can be better supported. Despite the UK's long standing history of migration and extensive laws and procedures related to the search of missing persons, this issue of people going missing on migration journeys to the UK is barely considered in public and policy discussions. There is very relatively so little understanding of the fact that there are many families here in the UK who are searching for lost or missing migrants. We don't know how many people have relatives who went missing on migration routes to the UK. What we can say is that nearly 300 people are believed to have died directly on the UK's border since 1999, including 13 last year in 2020. Another indicator is that in 2019 the British Red Cross, who actively conducts tracing on missing migrants in the UK, opened 1,571 tracing cases related to people going missing as migrants either in or en route to the country. Why do I even go ask questions? The police in the UK or Ghana can't help because we lost touch with them on the journey. And I am someone who can read and write but I am still struggling, so imagine someone who can't do that. This is a quote from Cindy, a Somalian woman who lives in Nottingham, who is missing her sister. Cindy is not her real name, it is a pseudonym chosen by her. The quote, like all other quotes from family members in this podcast, is recorded by an actor in order to protect the identity of the participants. At present there aren't any government protocols in place for people who are in the UK but whose family members have gone missing during migration. So in practice, how do families of missing migrants in the UK search for their loved ones? How families go about searching for their missing loved ones, migrant loved ones, will depend on a number of factors, such as whether they know for certain that their loved one has arrived in the UK as they are physically here in the UK or whether they are en route to the UK. It could also depend on whether the person being looked for the missing migrant is an adult or is an unaccompanied migrant child. Usually or normally the first step would be to, in reporting a missing person in the UK, would be to engage with a formal UK process. So that would involve reporting a case of missing to the national emergency help line and then the missing person's unit within the national crime agency in the UK would get involved in the case. However, this system is aimed at people who go missing within the UK. It is not available for people who may be missing outside the UK, except from our understanding in situations of say abduction. In almost all of the cases, our participants were not sure, 100% that their missing migrant was either alive or had simply gone out of touch. And that sense of not knowing, you know, leaves many in limbo and in grief and worry, just sheer anxiety about what's happened. You may remember your mom and dad out there, your siblings. You can't even get on with your own life. If you know that they are dead, you'll be more comfortable. But the problem is when you don't know whether they are alive or not. That's the main problem. I can't even explain it. The psychological and emotional impacts felt by families and friends while searching for or awaiting the return of their missing loved ones can be insufferable. This is particularly the case when they themselves have precarious immigration status. It can go unaddressed and people can fall between the cracks. A case which has stayed with me really since the research is that of a young man from Sudan who witnessed his friend Govinanda when they were crossing the Mediterranean Sea. And so he was one of the few who acknowledged the fact that his friend probably has perished because he saw him drawn and they were in a boat and they sort of slipped to the side and his friend did go under. He was saying they left their village together. They were friends back home in their community. The families knew each other. They were travelling together and any time he calls home his friends family have gone to ask his parents to find him and ask him of what's been done or whether their son's body has recovered. All of that pressure really had become unbearable for him. And he was one of those who had taken to drug use and in his case and in a few others they were we found also at risk of being sort of taking advantage of by, you know, for want of a better word, criminals here who, you know, try to entice those who are sleeping rough, those who are facing economic hardship here in the UK to become, you know, drug mills or to help themselves with drugs. Because he is homeless or he was at the time of the research and, you know, struggling to, you know, basically feed himself even. A lot of people in the UK who have missing relatives are migrants themselves. Some have been living in the country for years while others may have recently arrived. In any case, most of the families we spoke to were facing their own economic, social and legal difficulties. This means that despite knowing their loved one is missing, they may be hesitant to start searching for them. If you are struggling to survive yourself, you can't find someone unless you settle down. You can't look for them unless you have some way to live. You have a roof on your head and then some income to live on. That's when you can really focus on finding them. But when you are not independent or you're in a strong position with your papers or socially or economically yourself, you cannot do anything. Joseph waited nearly two years after arriving in the UK before starting to look for his sister. She went missing during her journey from Agadez in Niger across the Sahara Desert towards Libya. Joseph feared that starting a search would jeopardize his application to remain in the UK. When people have their own pending asylum cases in the UK, we found that those with missing migrant family members were reluctant to approach authorities. A lot of the families, for example, would not want to bring information about their families who may have just arrived in the UK or who may be en route to the UK. To the attention of authorities, it may be considering that there is a risk in terms of whether or not their families will be able to enter the UK or in terms of accessing the formal systems in the UK. So unless they feel that the person with whom they are speaking can empathize or understand at least their issue, it can be hard getting access to them. Because of that hesitation from families, there's always gaps in sort of data, available data about missing people or inquiries from families. Tasha, a Somalian woman who lives in Bristol and who is looking for her father, told us, I was completely afraid of asking anyone else for help because I was an illegal immigrant and didn't want just anyone at all to know. I didn't even dream of opening up about this problem I was having until I got my papers. You feared they were coming for you any time you saw a police car. Even when people want to approach authorities about a case, they may not know where to go or who to ask. A lot of families start the search by engaging their own informal networks. So this might be people who they know in their informal networks have already gone through similar routes or journeys on routes to the UK and may have experience of how to go about the search. They may also involve their own diaspora community and utilize sort of wider diaspora networks, both in the UK and diaspora contacts elsewhere, say in countries along the routes like within the European Union or maybe in the North of Africa, et cetera. People trying to find their family members who went missing on a regularised migration journeys often rely on organisations or middle people who have been living in the country for a while and who know the systems better to act on their behalf. Where participants were in touch with such groups or religious bodies, for instance, this was the first port of calls. So many, even for the search itself, relied on these semi-formal, informal support structures, religious leaders of various sorts. Mainly Christian and Muslim were relied on for counselling and psychosocial support of various sorts. Community groups who had suitably qualified counsellors could also support with the search, but also trying to help participants deal with the law or lost loved ones. Because some of our participants themselves came from areas where there was socio-political conflict. They were fleeing wars. They were fleeing quite traumatic issues themselves. And sometimes they felt that, even when they had been referred to a professional counsellor, or psychologists, they felt the person wasn't really understanding the complexities of their issues. So having specialists to deal with this as an added support to the funding availability was also very important. Some also reach out to formal civil society organisations in the UK. In particular, the British Red Cross. The British Red Cross carries out tracing services through its networks of offices around the world, including for people who are missing on migration journeys. But even when the people are registered with the British Red Cross or in government systems, reunifying them with their family members who are looking for them or vice versa can be difficult. This is often connected to the existence of firewalls between different authorities in the name of data protection. Because the systems just do not speak with each other. So, for example, if a child, a migrant child, goes missing from one local authority that they've been placed in as a looked after child of the state, and they have found a few weeks or months later somewhere else in the country, you'll be surprised to find that they would not be easily identified as the very same child that was reported missing a few months back. And we've also come across examples from stakeholders where the families searching and the migrants being searched for are in the same city, but in different local authorities. For example, London has 32 different local authority boroughs. And so the family might be in one borough in London and the migrant being searched for in another borough. But because of this firewall, they're not being supported to find each other or reunify with each other. And in addition, we also found that adult migrants are less likely to be found than child migrants because they are less likely to have direct contact with some of these systems, like the local authority systems as looked after child or like the education system as a migrant child would because they registered it with the schools. The families we spoke with, along with other experts interviewed, suggest that no one actor, whether in government, civil society or the families themselves, can improve the situation alone. One thing which families think could help would be to establish a working group of relevant actors on the topic. This working group would include families of missing migrants but also community international organizations and government representatives. It could design procedures for how families and those investigating on their behalf could navigate cases of missing migrant family members. While such cooperation could start at the country level, the aim should actually be to build networks with other actors regionally and beyond, both to share best practices and to help solve particular missing persons cases. One recommendation will be for a dedicated body in the UK that would be responsible or has the responsibility for facilitating everything or things to do with the search for missing migrants. And this would include being the central body for managing or facilitating how the data from families and the data from disease are collected and processed and utilized and stored. And in addition, we also found that existing expertise within the broader missing persons focus in the UK could be further enhanced to include components that speak specifically to the circumstances of migrant families and missing migrants themselves and how these actors engage with migrants' families in advocacy and providing things like psychosocial and trauma support, et cetera, for these families. And a very important component involving the families, giving the strong experience of families in terms of conducting the search themselves and the fact that they are able to utilize their wider networks, so their diaspora networks and migrant community networks. The recommendation from the research and stakeholders is for them to be actively included in this space, for them to be formally present and represented, to advocate for their own voices to be heard, to advocate for them to be key actors to collaborate with civil society, with academia, with the state and state institutions on this. One thing that is clear is that all efforts to assist people who have missing migrant family members should recognize the expertise, knowledge and well-being of families and put them at the centre. This means addressing their needs rather than focusing on the security and criminal aspects of how a person went missing. The definition of family in cases involving missing migrants should also be flexible and take into account emotional dependency and be in line with cultural and other contexts. So we know that in the UK it's really quite hard to begin the search or to know where to search when you arrive. But also, as you said, there are lots of laws and protocols and services for searching for migrants and anybody who goes missing in the UK, really. But as you identified, when it involves someone who is in the UK but searching for a loved one or a missing person outside the UK, that is where the biggest problems are. So one of the other things which they told us would be really helpful, would be a sort of system or structure of organisation or body agency, whatever you want to call it, which deals specifically with helping to search for migrants, loved ones who have gone missing outside the UK. So this body, they felt, or this agency or this system which will help in terms of providing access to families and other stakeholders, will also help in to add more attention to the issue they felt would be really important. In the absence of specially designed protocols and policies providing guidance to families with missing migrant relatives, grassroots NGOs and civil society organisations are trying to help families find answers. So a lady came up to me once at an event to explain the circumstances of a child or girl who was looking after, she was a foster carer and this girl from Eritrea was looking for her missing brother. The brother had gone missing when they were both on journey, under the journey, migration journey, they had both arrived in Libya together and she got resettled onto the UK and her brother had gone missing. The last time she had heard of her brother was when she heard he was in detention in Libya and so she reached out to this lady, her foster carer for support to see if she could help or IOM could help to identify or find her brother and to facilitate communication between the brother and the sister. Unfortunately, just as the very week actually that we were trying to facilitate or reach out to our colleagues in Libya to see how they can help, Libya spiralled into an incident and the brother was lost so we still don't have information about what became of the brother to this day. Overall, there is a need for more safe legal migration routes to the UK and elsewhere so that people aren't forced to risk it all on migration routes that can lead to disappearances or even death. But also linked to this, you know, the availability of work someone who has a class, that sort of humanitarian contract and humanitarian visas so that other relatives back home in the destination areas who are searching could also maybe travel to the UK to help continue the search or to help with the search if need be. Unless the significance of the problem is made more obvious, the amount of resources, human material, financial and others that are allocated to it would also be similarly limited. Some people may have a hard time thinking about why this matters to them. But someone's missing brother or sister is also connected to a bigger picture. Well, I think the issues we're talking about are basic fundamental human rights. They relate to international norms and standards which all countries, well most countries have signed up to. And if you believe in the principles of liberal democracy, these sorts of things are what supposedly separate, you know, humane societies from archaic barbaric ones. We care for each other. We don't watch people perish in anguish and, you know, I think ultimately it has a wide societal global impact. Living without them, stories of families left behind is a podcast series produced by IOM's Data Analysis Center in Berlin.