World Refugee Day: Helping Reunite Loved Ones Around the Globe

Woman in Red Cross vest looks on as man talks on a telephone.

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The American Red Cross Restoring Family Links (RFL) program helps reconnect family members separated internationally by disasters, war, conflict, migration and other crises. The services are free and confidential. Here, Red Crosser Elissa Maish helps Venance call his daughter who lives in a camp in Burundi. With support from the Red Cross, Venance periodically communicates with her through messages and phone calls. Photo by Michelle Frankfurter/American Red Cross

Man stands, talking on a phone while woman in Red Cross vest looks on.

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In South Sudan, volunteers from the South Sudan Red Cross help people separated from their loved ones due to fighting in the country. As Sudan enters the third year of conflict, the Sudanese Red Crescent provides life-saving support. A key activity is providing Restoring Family Links (RFL) so people can regain telephone contact with loved ones who they're separated from due to the fighting.

Two men hug with other people in the background watching.

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In Kosovo, family members are reunited through the Restoring Family Links program. Every year, people are separated from their loved ones due to conflict, disaster, migration or other humanitarian crises. For more than 50 years, the American Red Cross has helped family members search for their missing loved ones.

June 19, 2025

Every year on June 20, the international humanitarian community celebrates World Refugee Day (WRD), which was designated by the United Nations in 2001 to honor the courage and resilience of individuals who have been forced to flee their home countries due to conflict or persecution. The day also aims to build empathy and understanding for their plight and to support their efforts in rebuilding their lives.

The American Red Cross participates in WRD events to celebrate our diverse communities, and to promote the Restoring Family Links program, in partnership with the ICRC and our national society partners around the world.

Every year, people are separated from their loved ones due to conflict, disaster, migration or other humanitarian crises. For more than 50 years, the American Red Cross has helped family members search for their missing loved ones, share Red Cross Messages, and even assist with obtaining documentation related to detainment. Each American Red Cross region has RFL caseworkers who meet with clients to begin a case or act as “detectives” in their community to locate missing loved ones. They coordinate these efforts through national headquarters, which in turn works with the ICRC and national societies around the world.

RED CROSS VOLUNTEER FINDS HIS CALLING Vrezh Grigoryan joined the Red Cross as a Restoring Family Links caseworker during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.

That same year, he traveled on a humanitarian mission to Armenia during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Upon returning to the U.S., he joined the International Services U.S. Programs team in Los Angeles, working on Restoring Family Links, international humanitarian law and also serves with Service to Armed Forces, providing military family support. Vrezh has participated in several field missions across the Caucasus in a humanitarian capacity, including a mission in September 2023, during the displacement of more than 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh.

DISPLACED GRANDMOTHERS REUNITED IN ARMENIA “During my deployment in September 2023, I encountered an unplanned and deeply personal Restoring Family Links moment,” Vrezh recounted. “I was in Goris, where thousands of displaced Armenians had arrived. Around two in the morning, while coordinating relief efforts in the lobby of a hotel serving as a shelter, two elderly grandmothers in their nineties were brought in by Armenian Red Cross volunteers. They had been evacuated from a village under attack and were separated from their family during the journey. They had no contact information, no belongings, only their walking canes and the clothes on their backs.

“I spoke with them, gathered as much identifying information as I could, and began reaching out to my local network. I contacted a trusted associate I had worked with on previous missions. Through him, we reached the village leader, who was able to identify the women and connect me with their family. Less than a day later, the grandmothers were reunited with their loved ones. It was an organic RFL moment, a moment that came full circle for me. Everything I had learned as an RFL caseworker and everything I had experienced through my deployments came together in a single, human interaction. This is what RFL looks like when documentation does not exist. When everything else fails, but humanity remains.”

Today, Vrezh serves as an RFL mentor for the Pacific Division, a leadership partner in the Los Angeles Region, and a committed advocate for veterans. At the 2025 Volunteer Excellence Awards in Los Angeles, he earned the International Services award in recognition of his role supporting the Restoring Family Links program.

He says, “My work is consistently guided by the core principles of the Red Cross.”

DAY OF ACTION AROUND THE WORLD Thanks to hardworking volunteers like Vrezh, the American Red Cross is able to reconnect hundreds of families separated by war, disaster or migration. On World Refugee Day, and every day, we partner with local Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world to locate missing loved ones separated by humanitarian emergencies or crises.

Learn more about our Restoring Family Links Program here.

You will find more here and here about international Red Cross and Red Crescent support for refugees around the world.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.