Why do people go missing?

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Missing people

Every year the police register 15,000 cases of Polish citizens going missing both in Poland and abroad. People go missing regardless of age, sex and their social status. Most common reasons behind such disappearances include: various illnesses (physical or mental), accidents or everyday problems. Some people fall victims of a crime.

The police annually register 150 disappearances of children under the age of 7, about 800 of children aged 7-13 and about 3,500 children aged 13-17. Younger children usually go missing because of the lack of proper care.

Sometimes people go missing as a result of a crime, like kidnapping, paedophilia or murder. Older children and teenagers frequently disappear as a result of their conscious decision to leave home. Children may decide to run away for all sorts of different reasons and it can happen everywhere, even in the so-called “good homes”. Youngsters most often run away when they cannot cope with the everyday problems (at home, at school, with their peers or parents).

Adults go missing for a variety of reasons, among them various illnesses (stroke, heart attack, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia), accidents and traumas which result in amnesia.

Healthy people can also disappear. Many deliberately break off all contact with their close relatives. They run away when they cannot cope with different problems and cannot find a way to solve them. Some missing people start a new life, find a job and form new relationships. Others become homeless or social exiles; they wander around stations, stay overnight in shelters and random night refuges. Some cannot see a way out of their difficult situation and commit suicide. Still some fall victims of a crime (e.g. kidnapping or murder). Recently more and more people go missing while looking for a job abroad. Dishonest agents cheat them; sometimes they fall victims of human trafficking and are forced into slave labour. Women end up in brothels; many people are kept in labour camps.

Missing people's families

A disappearance is always a crisis situation: someone’s life may be in danger. The family is helpless. Nobody is prepared for the disappearance of a close relative. Our culture and tradition taught us how to cope with the illness or death of our loved ones, but not with their disappearance. It nearly always happens for the first time in the family or among neighbours.

People who suddenly find themselves in a crisis situation usually experience shock and terror. They feel completely overwhelmed and paralysed by what happened to them. Professional help is always necessary in that kind of a traumatic situation and so is easy access to information: how to look for a missing person, what can and should be done. Psychological support is also needed. Many people experience a psychological breakdown; some become depressed.

The families of missing people face various legal and social problems. When a husband goes missing, the wife cannot sell his car nor get a passport for the children and has no access to his bank account. The division of the estates also poses a problem. Many families find themselves in a very difficult financial situation. They need help in receiving a pension, placing a child in somebody’s care – and eventually - in presuming a person missing, if necessary. Families of missing people are usually helpless; they do not know where to seek help, do not have any life resources and are ashamed to ask for social support.

There is no state institution in Poland that would provide counselling and comprehensive support to the families of missing people. There are no legal regulations that would guarantee this support to the missing people and their families. The families often act in a chaotic and ineffective way. Many families are too ashamed to report a disappearance to the police or do not know that they should do it. When they finally end up at the police station and report a disappearance, they receive no information about how to search for the missing person and what they can do on their own (or how effective their activities can turn out to be).

Polish police usually do not realize that a person’s disappearance is an extremely difficult experience for the whole family. As a matter of fact, it is not the police’s responsibility to give the family psychological support or legal and social advice. The police seem to give the problem of disappearances less attention than they do to problems such as crime, which often results in an ineffective search.

Internal police regulations classify missing persons into two categories: the first (children and elderly or ill people) and the second (adults and youngsters seen as repeat runaways). As regards the first category of disappearances, the police are obliged to take specific operational activities; in case of the latter, however, police activities are very often limited to registering a report in the police database of missing people. What it really means is that no active search activities are undertaken, which only increases the helplessness and frustration of the family and – most importantly - reduces the chances of ever finding the missing person. At such times the help of an organization which comprehensively occupies itself with the problem of disappearances is more than necessary.