An internet database is providing a service to refugees who have lost touch with family after fleeing their homeland.

Refunite.org was established by Danish brothers, Christopher and David Mikkelsen. The website was launched late last year. The Mikkelsens were inspired to start the organisation, Refunite, after meeting a young Afghan refugee named Mansour.

Mansour had lost touch with his parents and siblings when he was 12. German news source Der Spiegel reports:

Five years earlier, Mansour’s family had paid a trafficker to evacuate them from Kabul to Peshawar, located across the border in Pakistan.

The night before the family was scheduled to leave, a spot opened up on another vehicle. The trafficker asked Mansour’s family to fill it and as the oldest son, Mansour, then 12, jumped aboard.

After returning to Pakistan in a search for answers to the whereabouts of his family, Mansour discovered they were scattered across the globe. Mansour and the Mikkelson brothers have only been able to locate one brother who is living in Russia.

“With Refugees United we strive to help countless people across the world suffering from not knowing the whereabouts of their family,” David said.

The site uses the concept of social networking to reunite friends and family and users can give as little or as much information as they want. For example, if a user is in hiding they can provide details that would only be known by family members. This protects their anonymity.

Refunite.org differs to systems used by NGOs such as the Red Cross. The Red Cross register is more time-consuming and complicated than the simple web platform devised by the Mikkelsens.

“We didn’t want to be the kind of NGO that is a third party providing help to refugees,” David told Der Spiegel. “We wanted to give (refugees) the opportunity to take control of their situations and help themselves — and give NGOs another tool to help.”

Refunite.org has been translated into 23 different languages with more to come. The challenge for the Mikkelsens now is attracting enough users to make reunions possible.

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