Sri Lanka’s Office of Missing Persons (OMP) has called on the government to seek international expertise to recover bodies buried in landslides and trace people reported missing after the Cyclone Ditwah disaster, stressing the need to allow families to carry out funeral rites with dignity.
OMP Commissioner Mirak Raheem told the Sunday Times that the office had formally urged authorities to request assistance from specialized international teams experienced in recovering human remains following landslides.
He said such efforts should be prioritized to address the humanitarian needs of affected families.
Although people who go missing due to natural disasters fall outside the OMP’s formal mandate, Raheem said the office had drawn on its experience working with families of the missing and the disappeared to highlight the emotional and cultural importance of recovering bodies.
“Based on our engagement with affected families, we emphasized the need to prioritize the search for those missing due to Cyclone Ditwah,” he said.
Raheem noted that recovery efforts are already underway, with a rapid response team from the United Arab Emirates assisting Sri Lankan authorities.
The UAE team, comprising personnel from Abu Dhabi Civil Defence, has been deployed in some of the worst-hit areas to conduct search and recovery operations.
The team has also helped deliver essential food supplies and emergency shelter materials to displaced families.
Meanwhile, the Registrar General’s Department has begun issuing death certificates to families of those reported missing, following a recent gazette notification outlining a revised procedure.
Under the new process, relatives of a missing person must submit an affidavit through the local Grama Sevaka confirming the disappearance.
The affidavit is then displayed publicly for two weeks to allow for objections.
After that period, zonal registrar offices are authorized to issue death certificates upon receiving a recommendation from the divisional secretary and supporting documents from the coroner.
Officials said at least 126 death certificates have been issued so far to families of individuals reported missing in landslides triggered by the cyclone.
Authorities continue to assess the full human impact of Cyclone Ditwah as recovery operations and administrative processes move forward in affected regions.
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