The lists of the missing and presumed dead are being updated every day as even the faintest hopes of recovery have dimmed. But what has now emerged is that there may be another list of the missing that will never be fully completed: the many immigrant workers who may have taken casual work in the area and whose families never knew they had jobs in New York.
Some may be among the undocumented immigrants in the US estimated at between five million and 11 million, and may not have communicated with their families when they found work. Others may have left their home countries years ago and lost touch with families and friends.
PHOTO: AFP
Even a week after the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings, there were people trying to gain access to the site uncertain whether their child or father or friend was among the missing.
"There are people in there from all over the world," said Dan Malfroid, a firefighter from Manistee in Michigan who until last week had never been to New York in his life.
Now he represents one of the faint lines of hope for the families and friends of people missing in the ruins by running an informal information center from his camper van parked on Canal Street next to one of the checkpoints through which police are allowing people back into the surrounding offices buildings and apartments. People who fear that their relatives may have been killed come to him with photos and a few details.
"Just look at the photos and the names and you can tell there are all sorts of different ethnicities," he said. "They're from every country you could think of. There was a woman just here whose son was a bike messenger and she didn't know whether he had been delivering anything that morning. She hasn't heard from him since then."
Among those missing whose names have not yet appeared on the lists are a number of Mexicans who may have had jobs in catering to the thousands who worked in the center. A group called the Tepeyac Association, a coalition of a number of Mexican groups, has identified as many as 29 Mexicans missing, but the executive director of the organization, Brother Joel Magalian, said he believed the number could be very much higher.
Many Mexicans in New York city are undocumented and some may have families who only know that they are working in the US. Since many did not have driver's licenses or passports, the chances of their identities ever being known for sure remain slim.
Immigrants also worked in large numbers on the maintenance of the building where the wages for most unskilled workers -- around US$30,000 -- were regarded as excellent. Workers cleaning windows, doing cleaning work on contract or even delivering flowers or mail like the missing bike messenger might not be on the list of any particular firm. The local Service Employees Union, which represents maintenance workers, has reported that 28 of its members are missing.
"No one has any real reason to have hope any more," said Malfroid, emerging from his van after a few hours' sleep. "But hope is all they have. You have to think: what if it was your family, how long would you go before you would give up?"
Malfroid pointed to a flyer with a picture of a smiling young woman called Suzanne Kondratenko. "Last night, a guy came through and said his daughter -- Suzanne Kondratenko -- had been on the 78th floor of the building and he wanted to go though the lines to be as near to her as possible and sometimes the police let him through so that he can just stand there within a block of it all."
Other flyers were still fluttering from lamp posts and stuck on empty buildings, some with candles shimmering beneath them.
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