Families of pilgrims missing in Tibet demand answers from China

Ten days after a devastating landslide struck the Tibet-Nepal border area, 261 foreign nationals remain unaccounted for, among them 33 citizens of Latvia. Relatives of the missing accuse Chinese authorities of failing to share information and say they still do not know whether their family members are alive.

Among those missing is a Finnish citizen born in India, who, like a group of Latvian travelers, was at a border crossing point with Nepal when disaster struck. Her brother says China has provided no information about what happened and that it is impossible to reach anyone able to explain the situation in the disaster zone.

Death toll and missing numbers keep rising

The landslide, which struck both sides of the border, has killed more than 1,300 people in total, while over 5,600 remain missing. On the Tibetan side, at least 31 deaths have been confirmed and 531 people are listed as missing, China's state news agency reported. Families of several missing people say the lack of information from China is deepening their distress — citing, for example, the family of a 51-year-old British citizen who still do not know whether she is alive. British police have already collected a DNA sample from her daughter to pass on to Chinese authorities.

Criticism over lack of cooperation

China's Foreign Ministry has not yet responded to media requests to comment on the families' accusations. Beijing has previously said it held briefings for embassies of 23 countries and that information is being released transparently and promptly, and has expressed willingness to cooperate with other countries on identifying victims, including sending a team of DNA identification experts to Nepal. However, diplomats who attended the briefings say Beijing has not provided detailed information on how identification will be carried out, nor offered to share video footage from its side of the border crossing, including possible facial-recognition camera images. By contrast, Nepalese authorities regularly publish information on the missing and dead and are actively conducting DNA testing.