Enforced disappearance

A new book by journalist Serdar Korucu sheds light on the decades-long struggle of the "Saturday Mothers," a group who have gathered every Saturday in Istanbul to demand answers and justice for their missing relatives.

At least 63,285 people have perished or disappeared on migration routes around the world between 2014 and 2023, with most deaths caused by drowning, the UN migration agency said on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old student Gergana Tsandeva, who went missing from Sliven on February 28, has been located by the police. Tsandeva, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, was found alive and in good physical condition. However, details about her whereabouts or the reason for her disappearance have not been disclosed by the authorities.

Families of those who went missing in the deadly Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes on Feb. 6 last year are still desperately searching for their loved ones a year on.

Nearly 100 migrants have died or disappeared in the central and eastern Mediterranean, including Greek seas, since the beginning of 2024, more than double the toll recorded last year during the same period, the UN migration agency said on Monday.

Relatives of 46 people from the Hadzici municipality who went missing in June 1992 and whose bodies have yet to be found held a rally outside the state prosecutor's office in Sarajevo on Monday, holding pictures of their loved ones and a banner with the names of the disappeared.

A cooperation agreement intended to boost efforts to find the remains of thousands of people who went missing under Albania's repressive Communist regime was signed on Thursday by the head of the State Police, Gledis Nano, and Gentiana Sula, president of the Authority for Information on Former State Security Documents, AIDSSH.