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Earthquake of the century in Turkey and Syria: UN admits omissions

2023-02-12T16:33:53.639Z


After criticism in the past few days, the United Nations has for the first time admitted that it had failed to provide aid in the earthquake region. People have been "let down".


Enlarge image

Children in front of UN aid tents near the Syrian city of Jandaris

Photo: Mahmoud Hassano / REUTERS

It was not until Thursday, three days after the devastating quake, which has meanwhile killed almost 30,000 people, that the first relief supplies arrived in the severely affected region: almost a week after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the United Nations acknowledged the failure of the relief effort.

This was preceded by international criticism of the United Nations.

The UN emergency aid coordinator Martin Griffith wrote on Twitter that “the people in north-west Syria have been let down so far”.

Northwest Syria is controlled by rebel groups - making deliveries difficult as the UN can only use one border crossing.

According to UN estimates, the death toll may rise to more than 50,000.

During a visit to the earthquake region in Turkey, Griffiths said the number of victims would "double or more".

The World Health Organization (WHO) assumes that 26 million people in Turkey and Syria could be affected by the disaster, including around five million people who are already considered to be particularly vulnerable.

According to the UN, at least 870,000 people in both countries have to be provided with warm meals, and up to 5.3 million people could have become homeless in Syria alone.

Meanwhile, the emergency services have managed to save more survivors.

According to Turkish media reports, the helpers managed to free a toddler and a teenager from the rubble on Sunday night.

A video distributed by the Turkish news agency Anadolu on Twitter showed how helpers rescued a 13-year-old from the rubble in the city of Gaziantep.

At the same time, a seven-month-old boy was recovered from the rubble in Hatay province, according to the IHA agency.

According to Turkish media reports, a two-year-old had also been rescued in Hatay.

In the province of Kahramanmaras, rescue workers had rescued a 70-year-old woman alive from the rubble.

Anadolu also reported on Saturday about the rescue of 35-year-old Özlem Yilmaz and her six-year-old daughter Hatice from a collapsed building in Adiyaman province.

A woman who was freed from the rubble by a German rescue team from the aid organization ISAR Germany on Friday died in a hospital on Saturday night.

The relatives of the 40-year-old Zeynep had informed the emergency services about her death.

Federal government announces easier visa allocation

The chances of recovering survivors decreased as time went on.

Turkish authorities set up makeshift morgues in parking garages, stadiums and gyms where desperate families searched for their dead loved ones.

The federal government has meanwhile decided to make it easier for surviving earthquake victims from Turkey and Syria to enter Germany with relatives and loved ones.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Foreign Office would make “regular visas that are issued quickly and valid for three months” possible for the people affected, the Interior Ministry explained.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) said on Twitter that the Federal Foreign Office and the Interior Ministry had formed a task force that is now starting work.

The aim is to "make visa procedures for those affected as unbureaucratic as possible".

For this purpose, the Federal Foreign Office has "reinforced staff and reallocated capacities" at the German diplomatic missions in Turkey.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-02-12

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