It is necessary, first of all, to define what is understood here by the expression “reuniting of families”.In this article, the term is used in a narrow sense. It refers to the humanitarian protection given, on an international plane, for the reuniting of the members of one and the same family, who have been separated from each other against their will, as a result of external events—international wars, civil wars, internal disturbances, grave political tension—and who have ended up in different countries on either side of a frontier which they find impossible to cross. In most cases, the difficulties involved for such persons to obtain permits allowing them to leave a particular country and enter another are practically insurmountable. It is such persons who are referred to here and it is to them that the ICRC endeavours to bring its assistance.