ICRC says over 1,200 missing persons cases filed in Iraq in 2025

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The International Committee of the Red Cross received more than 1,200 missing persons applications across Iraq in 2025, with the fates of 517 individuals clarified through investigations during the year, the organization said. ICRC's Iraq spokesperson Heba Adnan said the bulk of the applications concerned people who disappeared years earlier. The committee works with relevant authorities at the families' request to trace the missing, and also relayed 5,692 Red Cross messages between dispersed relatives during the same period, most of them between detainees and their families. Adnan said most of the missing persons files remain unresolved and deeply painful for the families involved. According to the committee's assessments, 93 percent of the relatives interviewed said they continued to face daily difficulties because of the psychological and social impact of the loss. The ICRC said it provides psychosocial support alongside legal, administrative and economic assistance. In 2025, it ran accompaniment programs for 794 families in areas including Saklawiya, northern Babel, Sinjar, Tal Afar, Abu Mariya, Hammam al-Alil and Khaniki.