A month after Nepal disaster, fate of 33 Latvians still unknown

A month has passed since a devastating natural disaster struck Nepal, yet the fate of 33 Latvian nationals remains unknown. Search operations are continuing on the ground, and rescuers have not officially abandoned hope of finding survivors.

Jurģis Barkāns, a representative of Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs who spent three weeks in Nepal, shared the latest updates with Latvian Television's news service. He described the event as what locals call an "inland tsunami," which swept away even solid concrete structures reinforced with rebar, tearing them from their foundations.

Search continues near the China-Nepal border

One of the leading theories is that both groups of Latvian travelers were near the destroyed Nepal-China border crossing, on the Chinese side, at the moment of the disaster. Although the last survivor was found on day 11 after the floods, neither Nepalese nor Chinese authorities have officially announced an end to the search for survivors. Barkāns suggested one possible reason could be hope of finding people in kilometers-long hydro tunnels, as well as villages that remain very difficult for rescuers to reach.

DNA comparison not yet completed

One of the key unanswered questions is whether any of the missing Latvians might be among the remains already recovered. DNA samples have been taken from recovered remains and body parts, but comparison with the profiles submitted has not yet been carried out. Latvia was among the first countries to provide Nepal with DNA profiles of its missing citizens, but local authorities reportedly still lack the capacity to create DNA profiles for the remains that have been found. Based on conversations with police, Barkāns said that so far, based on initial visual identification, only local residents have been found, not Europeans.