Left without a trace: Families search for missing children of Turkey’s earthquake

Four-year-old Emir was at home with his family when two devastating earthquakes hit southern Turkey on 6 February 2023, claiming the lives of more than 53,500 people.

The bodies of his mother, father and 10-year-old brother were found in the wreckage of their apartment block in Antakya, a city on the Syrian border.

But there was no trace of him.

Two years on, Emir is still missing. Dozens of families continue to search for their loved ones and at least 30 of the missing are children.

Emir’s aunt Nursen Kisa arrived at the collapsed building in Antakya an hour after the earthquake and waited beside the debris for over two weeks while search and rescue operations continued.

“We thought we could find him, or at least a piece of his clothing, some remains, some sort of a trace. But there were none. Neither in the debris nor among the bodies,” she said.