Search Service

The search service is a special service provided for by international treaties, and in our country is defined by the Law on the Croatian Red Cross (71/2010) as a public authority and one of the main activities in the Croatian Red Cross.

It is fully operational at the time of armed conflict when it works to collect information and provide information on victims of conflict. In peace The search service performs humanitarian services related to the provision of information and information on the fate of persons who have been separated, killed or missing due to natural disasters, economic migration or other circumstances.

The search service is responsible for:
– collecting, recording and processing data, providing information on victims of armed conflict to interested individuals, authorities and organizations at home and abroad, namely: prisoners of war, civilian internment, protected persons arrested for more than two weeks, protected persons on forced stay, wounded , sick and deceased members of the armed forces, missing children, children evacuated to another country, and children separated from their parents by armed conflict,
– exchanging family messages from family members separated by armed conflict or other extraordinary circumstances,
– bringing together family members separated by armed conflict or other extraordinary circumstances,
– other tasks arising from international treaties entrusted to the Croatian Red Cross by the Republic of Croatia.

The search service applies a unique methodology of work throughout the Republic of Croatia. In its work, it cooperates with various government bodies, institutions, associations and other social entities that are obliged and can provide the necessary information and other assistance in order to successfully complete the search.

The search service operates at all levels of the organizational structure of the Croatian Red Cross and is thus accessible to every citizen in the place where he lives or is temporarily located.

Claims pertaining to persons who have disappeared beyond the borders of our country are the responsibility of the National Bureau of the Office, which cooperates with the search services of other national Red Cross societies, the International Search Service in Arolsen and the Central Search Agency in Geneva.

The work of the Search Service today still largely concerns the search for persons missing in the Homeland War. As part of the National Exhumation and Identification Program, the Search Service collects details from the life of the requested person, the so-called anemortal data, through which pathologists perform the process of identifying victims. In addition, search engine staff contact family members of missing persons to call for blood samples for DNA analysis and for reporting access