Hundreds of children who may have been buried alive in Turkey’s February 6, 2022 earthquake disaster are still missing, according to a group set up for disaster victims and catastrophe-hit families with unaccounted-for relatives.

The shocking claim of the group, the Earthquake Victims and Missing Relatives Solidarity Association, active in Turkey’s post-earthquake zone, runs contrary to the assertions of Turkey’s government. Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas has stated that no children are missing in the zone.  

As reported by bianet, Nermin Yildirim-Kara, a lawmaker of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) representing Hatay—the Turkish province that was heaviest hit by the quake disaster centred on southeastern Turkey, known to have taken the lives of at least 59,000 people, including around 8,500 in northern Syria—has taken up the cause of anguished families in the zone distressed that their children have been missing for almost a year since the disaster struck, destroying around 350,000 apartments. 

Citing posts from the Earthquake Victims and Missing Relatives Solidarity Association, Yildirim-Kara reportedly emphasised the urgency of the situation.

"If there are no missing children, where are these children? Have their families been provided with any information?” the MP was reported as saying, adding: “If we indeed have no missing children, why have these families been searching for their children for 11 months? We demand answers from the ministry.”

Yildirim-Kara noted that there was a proposal for a parliamentary investigation based on data shared by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority that showed 211 citizens were still missing in Hatay.

“However, information from our citizens indicates that this number is much higher, including unfortunately, missing children," she was also reported as saying.

Kara was said to have highlighted one case in which nobody is able to locate six children who resided in the Ronesans residential complex, a luxury estate in Antakya, Hatay, completely devastated by the disaster.