Lebanese father finds son in Croatia after 40 years

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The news in Croatian

1. Libanonac  (m.)
   muškarac koji dolazi iz države Libanon ili tamo ima podrijetlo ↩︎
2. ponovno
   još jedanput, opet, iznova ↩︎
3. razdvojiti
   rastaviti nešto što je bilo zajedno; učiniti da ljudi ili stvari više nisu zajedno ↩︎
4. kontakt  (m.)
   odnos ili veza među ljudima; mogućnost da se netko nazove, napiše ili vidi ↩︎
5. pronaći
   doći do nečega što se traži; otkriti gdje ili tko je nešto ili netko ↩︎
6. izgraditi
   napraviti nešto postupno; s vremenom stvoriti nešto čvrsto, npr. kuću ili dobar odnos ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: Why were Yussef and his son Ali separated for many years?

Question 2: Who helped to find Ali after many years without contact?

Vocabulary

Croatian	English
Libanonac  (m.)	Lebanese (man)
ponovno	again
razdvojiti	to separate
kontakt  (m.)	contact
pronaći	to find
izgraditi	to build

Read the full story

A Lebanese father has been reunited with his son in Croatia after almost four decades of separation, in a case that several Croatian media describe as one of the most moving stories handled by the Croatian Red Cross.

The father, named in some reports as Yussef, first came to what is now Croatia as a young student in the 1980s. During his studies he met a Croatian woman, and they had a son, Ali. After graduation, the father returned to Lebanon. Soon afterwards, Lebanon was hit by armed conflict, while Ali and his mother stayed in Croatia, which itself was later affected by the Homeland War (Domovinski rat) in the 1990s.

At first, the parents managed to keep in touch across borders. However, as conflicts intensified in both countries, their communication was suddenly cut off. Over the following years, the father tried repeatedly to find any information about his son, using friends, visits and official channels, but without success.

According to the reports, he travelled to Croatia several times to search in person, even visiting the area where his son had lived. Over time, addresses changed and people moved, making it almost impossible for him to locate his child. Despite this, he is said to have never lost hope that they would one day meet again.

The turning point came when the father learned about the Tracing Service of the Croatian Red Cross, a department that works on restoring family links and searching for relatives who have been separated by war, migration or disasters. Staff advised him to submit an official search request, which opened a formal investigation into his son’s whereabouts.

Once the request was filed, the National Tracing Office in Zagreb and local branches began to search. The Red Cross branch in Klanjec, a small town in northern Croatia, soon confirmed that they had located the man believed to be the missing son and that he wanted to make contact with his father.

After receiving this news, which he had waited for nearly 40 years, the father quickly returned to Croatia. The next day, he and his son met in person. The Croatian Red Cross described it as a deeply emotional reunion, with father and son embracing for the first time since the boy’s infancy.

Ali, now around 40 years old, told one Croatian newspaper that he had last seen his father as a baby and had known him only from photographs and stories his mother shared. He explained that, when they finally met in Zagreb, the atmosphere felt surprisingly calm and familiar – almost like two old friends seeing each other again after many years. He emphasised that the most important thing for him was that they could now build a relationship based on mutual affection.

The reunion also opened the door to a larger family network. Through his father, Ali learned more about relatives in Lebanon, including a younger half-sister. He described their first contact by video call as particularly emotional and said he had long imagined having a little sister. According to his account, she cried during their first conversation, and he now looks forward to visiting Lebanon to meet her and the rest of the family in person.

Ali said that growing up without a father was very difficult, but he does not wish to focus on the past or assign blame. Media reports quote him as saying that he accepts the complicated circumstances of war and distance, and that he is simply glad his father continued to search. A comment from a relative in Croatia, who lost his own father, underlined the contrast of destinies: while one person lost a parent, another finally found his.

For both father and son, the timing of their reunion gives a special meaning to the upcoming holidays. Several outlets quote the son as saying that this will be the “best Christmas ever”, as he prepares to travel to Lebanon and meet the family he has only recently discovered.

The Croatian Red Cross used the case to highlight the importance of its long-standing Tracing Service. This service has been active since 1878 and is part of a global network within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Its work includes preventing family separation, helping relatives keep in touch during crises, and clarifying the fate of missing persons after wars and disasters.

In this instance, Red Cross staff in Croatia say they witnessed not only the reuniting of a father and son, but also the start of a broader process of rebuilding family ties across borders. The father has now formally closed his search request with gratitude, and both he and his son have expressed hope that they can develop a new chapter of family life after decades apart.

Info: ‘Croatian Learner News’ is a service from ‘Let’s Learn Croatian’, a language school dedicated to teaching Croatian through various types of online courses and in-person programmes. It offers information and resources for learners who wish to learn Croatian in Croatia as well as from anywhere in the world.