PETALING JAYA: It's been almost three weeks since the tragic floods in Nepal and hopes of finding 55 missing Malaysians are fading – but the families are still holding out for a miracle.
The families are refusing to give up hope and not performing any final rites for their loved ones.
"Some believe the victims are stuck somewhere or badly injured. Some are just waiting to see the bodies," said Malaysia Solidarity: Families in Hope (Masfih) spokesperson Subramaniam Murugaya.
The families are seeking answers from the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART), which has concluded its search and returned home.
According to Bernama, the team arrived in Malaysia at 2am on Monday (Sept 14) and briefed the Foreign Ministry on their mission and any information gathered in Nepal.
The families only learnt of the team's return through news reports, said Subramaniam.
"Wisma Putra usually just summarises the content of the news published to us. What we want is clear communication on the details of their search.
"We have been told that DNA matching in Nepal may take up to five months, which means families are about to be in limbo for that long," he added.
Subramaniam said the families were also facing financial difficulties, particularly in cases where the missing person was the family's breadwinner.
"Spouses can't take out money from their partners' accounts. Even insurance companies are asking about the missing person to approve some details.
"Since Wisma Putra says the person is missing, not dead, banks do not accept the letter. There are loan instalments that need to be paid."
He suggested the government help the families with a temporary moratorium or provide some financial assistance until they get closure.
Another Masfih spokesperson, Dr Manivannan Rethinam, said the families were still holding out hope because there is no verified information about the fate of their loved ones.
"Until there is verified information, we should not give up on them," he said in a statement.
He said the families' concern was not about the dedication or professionalism of SMART personnel but the timing, strategy and areas covered.
He said SMART only entered the affected area on Day 14, raising questions over whether the deployment was early enough and whether the right locations had been searched.
"The fact that no Malaysians were found cannot automatically be interpreted as evidence they were not in those locations," he said.
He said the families needed more than "no trace found" to consider the search over.
Since the disaster on Aug 26, he said that the families have been unable to live normally because they do not know if their loved ones will return home.
"We are grieving without knowing whether we are supposed to be grieving," he said.
