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Where is it?
Find your family with the international network "Restoring family links"
What is it?
Restoring Family Links (RLF) is an international Red Cross network that helps families separated involuntarily during conflict, natural disaster or on the route of migration.
If you are a person in France looking for a family member abroad (or in France), the RLF helps you:
- Search for your loved ones;
- Communicate with your loved ones;
- Bring your family members together;
- Request official documents to enforce your rights.
Each request must meet 2 criteria:
* Eligibility: the cause of the break in contact must be involuntary and a specific link with the person sought must be established. This means that the person you are looking for is a close family member or someone with whom you have a special connection (e.g. traveling companions, prisoners of war, etc.), and that you have been forced to separate.
* Feasibility: the conflict zone or affected by the disaster must be accessible by RLF teams.
However, in certain situations, the RLF teams cannot act (see list of cases at the end of the sheet, in the “and after?” section).
How to do it?
The first contact with the RLF allows you to find out if your request meets the two criteria of eligibility and feasibility.
If you live in (or near) one of these cities, contact the RFL nearest to you:
- Paris: 112 rue Brancion – 75015 PARIS, 07 77 46 62 40, mail ;
- Sevran: 6 rue Paul Langevin - 93270 SEVRAN, 06 33 77 62 52, mail ;
- Aix-en-Provence: 32 Cours des Arts et Métiers - 13100 AIX-EN-PROVENCE, 07 88 39 23 81, mail ;
- Toulouse: 71 chemin des Capelles - 31300 TOULOUSE, 06 83 99 50 17, mail ;
- Brest: 4 rue du Conquet – 29200 BREST, 02 98 05 06 08, mail ;
- Nantes: 10 rue d’Athènes – 44300 NANTES, 06 17 15 52 34, mail ;
- Lyon: 16 bis rue Paul Cazeneuve - 69008 LYON, 04 28 29 66 84, mail ;
- Amiens: 36 Square Friant les 4 Chênes - 80000 AMIENS, 03 22 33 38 94 - 06 47 11 84 94, mail ;
- Lille: 10-12 Place Dampierre – 59800 Lille, 06 08 52 25 55, mail ;
- Bordeaux: 130 Cours d'Alsace-et-Lorraine - 33000 BORDEAUX, 06 56 66 05 28, mail ;
- Montpellier: 9 rue Gaston Planté - 34790 GRABELS, mail ;
- Mobile device - DMSE: marauding on the camps of 59 and 62 from Tuesday to Thursday, 06 45 46 39 93, rlf.mobile@croix-rouge.fr
- Mobile device - Morphee: marauding on the camps in the North-East of Paris on Saturday, 06 72 78 07 27, rlf.mobile@croix-rouge.fr
If you live in another region, contact the central RFL located in Montrouge:
French Red Cross - RLF Service: 21 rue de la Vanne - 92120 MONTROUGE, 01 44 43 12 60 (Monday to Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. - 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.), email .
The map with the schedules and geographical areas of action of each RLF office is here.
If you respond to the 2 criteria of the RLF application, you must complete a form or make an appointment with the RLF office.
You must provide detailed and precise information on:
- The identity of the person you are looking for: surname, first name, date of birth, photo...
- The circumstances of the loss of contact: date, place...
Your request will be sent to the RLF services of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent or the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the concerned countries.
As soon as the person is found, his contact details will be communicated to you, but only if the person agrees.
What happens next?
It is impossible to know in advance how long the processing of the application will take, because the ability to find a person depends on several factors. The research takes sometimes several months, but the RLF teams do their best to help you.
In certain situations, the RFL teams cannot act:
> Worrying disappearance (the person is not at home and has not been reachable for several days)
For research on French territory, contact the gendarmerie or the police (17).
> Search for people in France
- To find a relative or a biological parent (especially for children born under X), contact the Salvation Army via this link.
- To search for an asylum seeker, refugee or stateless person, contact the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA). If the status was obtained a long time ago, the archive collections can be consulted on site (appointment required via mission-histoire@ofpra.gouv.fr). If the research mission concerns a recent separation, write or call directly: Ofpra – Legal Affairs Division, General Affairs Section, 201 rue Carnot, 94 136 Fontenay-sous-Bois Cedex. Standard: 01 58 68 10 10.
- To find a refugee permanently settled in France, contact the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII) via this link.
> Search for prisoners of war or civilian internees
- To search for a victim, a prisoner of war and/or civilian internees, contact the International Committee of the Red Cross via this link.
- To find a person who has been interned in a prison establishment in France, contact the Ministry of Justice, Department of Prison Administration, Labor, Training and Employment Office, 8-10 rue of the Fox, 75004 PARIS.
- To find a person who has been detained in military internment camps in France, contact the Ministry of the Interior, Internal Security and Local Liberties (National Archives Mission, 11, rue Cambacérès, 75008 PARIS).
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