Update to earthquake aid plans

Thursday 09 February 2023

Having said that Guernsey's Overseas Aid Committee was unlikely to be sending any money to help earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, consideration is now being given to the idea.

In a statement issued to Express at lunchtime, Deputy Chris Blin, the President of the Commission, said that the department “generally focuses its project and emergency aid work on a list of approximately 50 countries”.

He said that Turkey is too high on the UN Human Development Index to qualify for assistance – the 48^th most developed out of 189.

While Syria is one of the least developed countries in the world, Deputy Blin said it falls “second to last on the Corruption Perception Index”, which is compiled by Transparency International”. 

Pictured: The Syria and Turkey flags.

Deputy Blin said that while the Commission generally focuses its project and emergency aid work on a list of approximately 50 Countries, based on their’ respective positions on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, as well as the Corruptions Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International, it is also "very sad to hear of the high loss of life and thousands of injuries caused by two significant earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria".

In a second statement issued later during the same afternoon, Deputy Blin said the Commission "also has great sympathy for the injured and those facing the aftermath, including the loss of their homes".

In light of the increasingly high number of fatalities, and the many tragic and also heroic stories coming out of the region, Deputy Blin said that the Commission's position had changed after it received direct requests for help from charities already working with victims and survivors. 

"The Commission has now received requests for direct support from a number of charities, and a Disaster and Emergency Committee (DEC) Public Appeal has today been launched in the UK which is being supported by the UK Government," he said.

"The Commission will therefore be giving further careful consideration on whether it can provide support at its meeting on 15 February."

Pictured: At lunchtime today it looked unlikely that any official financial support would come from Guernsey.

The u-turn made by the OA&DC came just a couple of hours after Jersey's equivalent committee said it would be giving £150,000 to support victims of the earthquakes.

That money is going to The Red Cross and Crescent’s Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal.

The money is alongside a £200,000 donation Jersey has already made to a pooled support fund with the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and other government funding instruments. It will go to non-governmental organisations in the region to scale up search and rescue efforts, food, medicine, sleeping bags, electric heaters, and tents.

Jersey’s Minister for International Development, Deputy Carolyn Labey, said: “Supporting The Red Cross and Crescent Movement complements our existing support of the hard to access region of Northern-Syria who are facing unimaginable hardship after more than a decade of civil war”.

Guernsey's Overseas Aid and Development Committee has a budget of £3m per year which is a small percentage of the island's GDP.

It allocates grants of up to £50,000 to projects around the world, usually via charities already working in areas which need support in response to natural or man made disasters.

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Turkey and Syria "unlikely" to benefit from States support