Sep 13, 2023 at 8:12 AM Update: 26 minutes ago
A Dutch relief team will fly to Morocco with search dogs on Wednesday for help after last Friday’s devastating earthquake. It concerns a team of six people and four dogs.
It concerns a team of Signi search dogs. The organization also helped in Turkey, which was hit by a devastating earthquake in February.
A spokesperson for Signi says that it certainly still makes sense to go to Morocco. “In Turkey, we also found people alive under the rubble after twelve days.”
The emergency workers and search dogs will leave Brussels on Wednesday at 3 p.m. The flight takes four hours. The intention is for the team to drive to the disaster area immediately after arrival. There, the care providers look at where they can best help.
“We have a small, flexible team, so we can easily go anywhere,” says the spokesperson. The emergency workers have a thermal camera and a camera to look under the rubble.
This allows them to look for living people under the rubble. They can also locate fatalities with it. This way, relatives have certainty where someone is and bodies can be recovered.
Signi can go to Morocco, although the country is not asking for help
Morocco did not ask Signi to come and help. The country does not simply allow all aid, because that would not be logistically convenient.
But Signi can travel to Morocco on his own, because the foundation is a private aid organization. Organizations linked to the government cannot simply do this.
“In principle, you prefer to go via a call from the country itself. That was also the case with Turkey at the time,” says the spokesperson. “But if a country does not make an appeal, you can look locally at what the options are. That is easier for non-governmental organizations.”
The team is scheduled to fly back next Wednesday.
Beeld: Getty Images
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2023-09-13 06:12:25
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