Splitting up families is not the answer to migrant crisis

Some years ago, I was in the supermarket with my young son. I turned around from the shelves expecting him to be stood next to me, but he was gone. I looked around, calling his name. In the minutes that followed, the floor sunk beneath me, my entire world collapsed. Thankfully, it wasn't long before he reappeared from another aisle. He couldn't understand why I hugged him so hard. Many of us will relate to this feeling — those minutes when a child is missing or out of sight can feel like hours.

- Alex Fraser, The Independent

This is my reference point, in a small way, to understand just some of the anguish many refugees live with every single day. When conflict or disaster strikes, many people are forcibly separated from their children, husbands and wives. Others have to make impossible choices to go their separate ways for the sake of staying alive. Once they lose contact, it's incredibly difficult to find each other again.

Helping people trace their missing relatives is one of the oldest services the Red Cross provides. We were proud to be reuniting families in the First World War and we are proud to still be doing so today. The government grants refugee status to people when they have been forced to flee their home and it is unsafe for them to return.