The disappearance of persons is an unfortunate fact that occurs worldwide, although not all cases are equally likely in different countries and places. In particular, in Spain, to address this problem there is the Information System of Missing Persons and Unidentified Human Remains, under the responsibility of the National Center for Missing Persons.
The meaning of missing person is established by the European Council (recommendation CM/rec 12, 9 December 2009):
"A missing person is a person who is absent from his or her habitual residence for no known or apparent reason, whose existence is a cause for concern or whose new residence is unknown, giving rise to a search in the interest of his or her own safety and on the basis of family or social interest".
The General Technical Secretariat, belonging to the Ministry of the Interior, prepares a Protocol of action of the Security Forces and Corps in cases of missing persons (2019 version) and establishes, in relation to that body, the following definition:
"Missing person is a person about whom his relatives, friends and acquaintances have no news of his whereabouts and personal situation, regardless of what his age is (minor or adult), or his sex, condition, nationality or any other personal or social circumstance, as well as what is the 9 reason that has caused the absence from the environment in which usually developed and ran the life of that person."
The disappearance of persons is, in general, a tragic phenomenon of global occurrence that affects both the individual who suffers it and his or her family and social environment. However, the typology of disappearances is varied and their characteristics are different, including multiple factors, such as the country in which they occur, the age or sex of the missing persons, etc.
For this reason, the search process, which should begin as soon as possible after the disappearance is detected, also has different determining factors that must be taken into account when it is protocolized.
To address this problem in Spain, since 2010 there has been an Information System for Missing Persons and Unidentified Human Remains, under the responsibility of the National Center for Missing Persons, whose missions include the improvement of protocols for action in the field of disappearances; and currently in force in our country is the First Strategic Plan on Missing Persons (2022-2024), in which various entities related to the problem participate.
The statistics corresponding to 2022 indicate that the great majority (91.8%) of disappearances in Spain are of a voluntary nature, in which a majority correspond to minors; while, unfortunately, 0.3% are of a forced nature, the remaining 7.9% are involuntary or are not classified.
Part of this last percentage corresponds to the case of PEPERS, one of the causes of these disappearances being cognitive deterioration; and given the demographic evolution of Spain, and especially the increasing life expectancy, it generates a scenario in which the number of cases will hardly tend to decrease naturally, being, therefore, necessary a preventive action, aimed at correcting the situation and in any case to alleviate its consequences.
In absolute values for complaints filed, the Autonomous Community of Galicia is in an intermediate position at the national level, with Coruña and Pontevedra being the provinces with the highest number of cases, and Lugo the lowest. It is to be expected that the highest number of complaints occurs, in principle, in places with higher population, however this logic is reversed in the chaos of Lugo and Ourense, with Ourense presenting more complaints with a smaller population, which is a wake-up call to go deeper into this case.
In the case of the missing persons, who have not yet been found and who are kept in the sosdesaparecidos-Galicia database, it is found that more than a third of cases need some type of medication, which makes them a particularly vulnerable group, according to the consequences that the interruption of medication may entail.
As for the particular case of the municipality of Ferrol, which has a large segment of the population over 65 years of age, there is also the anomaly that those aged 85 or over outnumber those in the 80-84 age, and in the particular case of women also outnumber those in the 75-79 age bracket, taking into account that at national level in the National Health Survey of Spain, 26.3% of women aged 85 years or more manifest much difficulty or disability due to cognitive impairment, this places this particular group of people in Ferrol in a situation of special vulnerability, including the risk of loss due to disorientation.
Of the 12 cases reported by the Ferrol City Council for the period 2021-2023, 8 were at least over 70 years of age, and in this group they were divided equally between men and women, one of the latter being the oldest of the entire registry. Despite the fact that age acts as a risk factor for cognitive impairment, it should be taken into account that it is also a risk factor for mobility impairment, and the latter would act as a protective factor against loss, as the individual would not be able to move away from his or her environment, neither at long distances nor at excessive speed.
These people, therefore, would enjoy a certain security, especially in the urban environment if they are known, on the contrary, in a rural environment with low population, if they manage to get away from their home, they would have serious difficulties to return to it, and if they have accessed an inconspicuous place, they might not be detected by anyone.
Based on the study and analysis of other existing search protocols, a proposal has been prepared for the Ferrol City Council. It should be borne in mind that for any action procedure to be effective, it must be provided with sufficient means, both human and material, or of any other type.
In recent times there have been technological improvements that need to be available, when starting a search process, an example of this is the use of drones, so the training of a team specialized in their use for the search of people is a valuable investment, that with the right approach and the right collaboration can make the difference in maintaining the lives of people who need to be found and rescued.
Nor can we lose sight of the fact that technology is not the only form of search assistance, Ferrol has a canine unit, whose members have the capacity to perform tireless life-saving work, making them true four-legged heroes in the field of search and rescue. Through proper training and close collaboration between dog and handler, these canine teams can make a difference in people's lives and help reunite vulnerable people with their loved ones.
