Data from the Brazilian Public Security Forum (FBSP) show that at least 183 people disappear per day in the country, on average. However, Brazil still does not have a real dimension of the number of people who are missing, since the Brazilian State does not have an integrated and standardized national register of missing persons. This statement was made by the protection coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Larissa Leite. The entity has been helping, for at least ten years, Brazilian family members to find missing loved ones. “The Brazilian State has a lot of information about the whereabouts of people, but it lacks not only a cross-referencing of databases, a database interoperability, but coordination between public institutions to cross-reference the information of people who are missing”, she points out. . In 2019, the federal government sanctioned the Law on the National Policy for Searching for Missing Persons, which provides for the creation of a national registry. However, the system is not yet operational. The data currently available come from police reports registered by the civil police of each state, but which are not standardized. “There is this widespread practice in the country that a disappearance is registered with the Civil Police through a police report. But the states have different ways of collecting this information: they don’t have a standardized form, just as they don’t have a standard search procedure”, emphasizes Larissa Leite. Currently, the main database of missing people in the country is the Map of the Disappeared in Brazil, from the Brazilian Public Security Forum. Released last Monday (22), the FBSP map shows that, from 2019 to 2021, more than 200,000 people disappeared in Brazil, an average of 183 disappearances per day. “In fact, Brazil still doesn’t know how many people are missing. We don’t have, let’s say, statistics and a system that keeps this number of missing people up to date, but the fact is that there is no doubt that there are thousands”, says Larissa Leite. Response The coordinator of the Red Cross says that the main demand of the relatives of the disappeared is to make sure that their loved one has not been forgotten by the authorities, and that there is an ongoing search process. However, there is currently no system for updating each case on the progress of the localization process. Even in the police stations where the disappearance was registered, families have difficulty obtaining information due to the rotation and overload of the teams of investigators, or even because the case did not progress. “The response expected by the family is that the missing person was found alive. But if that’s not possible, at least they want to know how he died and where the body is. While they don’t have those two answers that would close this cycle, they have the right to know that there is a search process going on,” she points out. Larissa says that, without the certainty that the search for the relative is active, the family members often start taking risks to obtain any information about the missing person. “They start taking action themselves. The more they do not find support and guidance from the authorities, the more they throw themselves into a search alone.” “They end up suffering extortion, end up suffering situations of physical danger. There are often family members who use all their resources, selling their own pots, their hair, to be able to buy a ticket to check if a piece of news they received through a random phone call is true.” The coordinator of the Red Cross also says that, while the search process is taking place, some of the family members get sick and start to have financial problems. “While the search is taking place, family members become physically ill, in addition to becoming ill in terms of mental health.” The conditions usually developed are diabetes, heart problems, autoimmune diseases, insomnia, anxiety and depression. “This develops from living with this doubt and this urgency for a long time, without much support. In addition to the economic consequences, both because of the investment in the search and because they cannot continue working to dedicate themselves to the search or because of the illness”, highlights Larissa Leite.
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©