Chile quake: website to facilitate family contacts

Chile earthquake: website to facilitate family contacts operational

Geneva (ICRC) – Following the devastating earthquake that shook Chile last Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) activated a website today to help thousands of people within the country and abroad to restore contact with their loved ones.

The address is www.icrc.org/familylinks. "The site allows people in Chile and abroad to register the names of relatives with whom they want to restore contact. It will incorporate responses to those queries as they become available," said Robert Zimmerman, deputy head of the ICRC's Central Tracing Agency and Protection Division.

The website is managed by the ICRC in cooperation with the tracing services of the Chilean Red Cross and of other National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies throughout the world.

Although the information on the website can be posted by anyone and the ICRC can therefore not take responsibility for the accuracy of all of the content, the site is nevertheless a crucial tool for restoring contact among family members or finding out what happened to people who have gone missing.

Two ICRC staff members arrived in Santiago de Chile today to support the aid efforts of the Chilean Red Cross as part of the overall disaster response led by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

ENDS

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