Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) In the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria earlier this week, the EU has said it is running one of its largest search and rescue operations through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism “to help save as many lives as possible.”
On Thursday, EU commissioner Janez Lenarčič in his role as crisis coordinator of the EU’s response arrived in Gaziantep and will meet with the Vice-President of Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management and with the cross-border humanitarian partners from Northwest Syria.
Together with the EU Civil Protection Team and the EU’s Humanitarian Aid Office in Gaziantep, he will visit the disaster site and ongoing rescue operations.
After this week’s activation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism for Syria, the EU emergency response coordination center is said to be “closely coordinating” with EU Member States and the Mechanism’s Participating States to channel emergency assistance to the Syrian people as rapidly as possible.
Italy and Romania have already made first offers including, family tents, sleeping bags, mattresses, beds, food items, winter clothing, and more.
On 9 February, the World Food Programme requested assistance via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to support the affected people in Syria. This will allow further EU aid to be channeled.
The EU and its Member States are together the largest donors of humanitarian aid for Syria, having provided over €27 billion since 2011. In Syria, the EU has provided €3.5 million in emergency funding to help humanitarian partners address urgent needs which include cash for the shelter and non-food items, water and sanitation, health, and search and rescue following the earthquake.
The latest support includes the mobilization of the rescue strategic reserves to deliver 500 temporary accommodation units, 2,000 tents, and 10,500 beds to Türkiye from its emergency stockpiles hosted by Sweden and Romania.
The tents can provide rapid relief, hosting 4 people each, while the prefabricated temporary housing units can host up to 5 people each and are designed to offer emergency shelter to people who lost their homes in the earthquake for a longer period. The financial value of the rescue assistance is nearly €5 million.
This comes on top of the 21 EU Member States together with Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia that have offered in total 38 rescue and medical teams via the EU civil protection mechanism
More than 1,650 rescuers and 104 search dogs have been deployed to the most affected areas in Türkiye. So far, 36 people have been rescued by the search and rescue teams deployed via the Mechanism. Complementing aid that will be provided by humanitarian organizations, the Belgium-based King Baudouin Foundation has said it will make its “philanthropic tools and network available to philanthropists who want to show solidarity with the victims.”
With its partners from the philanthropic network, the KBF said it is joining with the Give2Asia initiative to help communities in Turkey and Syria. The KBF has set up a donor circle to collect donations. A proportion of the funds collected will go towards emergency services for humanitarian relief, while some will also be used for longer-term reconstruction.
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