Family separation—whether caused by armed conflict, repressive regimes, disasters, or immigration policies—traumatizes children and parents and can have long-term impacts on physical and mental health (1). It is therefore imperative to develop and deploy policies and tools to support prompt and safe family reunifications and address wrongful government-imposed separations. Given the particular legal, psychological, and medical vulnerabilities of separated migrant families, we propose here a replicable, scalable, and sustainable framework to collect and manage sensitive DNA data to support the reunification of families in a manner that is secure, ethical, and humane, responding to families' needs while minimizing potential risks of government misuse of sensitive data (2). Whether or not families ultimately reunite should be primarily the choice of each family with guidance from supporting agencies, taking into account the child's best interests and family members' safety (1). But lack of tools to connect families, an inability to verify genetic relationships when applicable, and fears of the sensitivity of DNA data should not be barriers.

家庭分离——无论是由武装冲突、专制政权、灾难还是移民政策造成的——都会给儿童和父母带来创伤，并可能对身心健康产生长期影响 ( 1 )。因此，当务之急是制定和部署政策和工具，以支持迅速和安全的家庭团聚，并解决政府实施的不当分居问题。鉴于离散移民家庭在法律、心理和医疗方面的特殊脆弱性，我们在此提出一个可复制、可扩展和可持续的框架，以收集和管理敏感的 DNA 数据，以安全、合乎道德和人道的方式支持家庭团聚，响应家庭需求，同时将政府滥用敏感数据的潜在风险降至最低（2）。家庭是否最终团聚应该主要由每个家庭在支持机构的指导下选择，同时考虑到孩子的最大利益和家庭成员的安全（1）。但缺乏连接家庭的工具、在适用时无法验证遗传关系以及对 DNA 数据敏感性的担忧不应成为障碍。