Brussels, 28/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Up to €3 million in emergency humanitarian aid is all the European Commission was able to find on Friday 25 February to deal with the most immediate needs in Libya and its neighbours (see EUROPE 10324), but a massive humanitarian aid package is being prepared by the EU. EU Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said at a press conference in Brussels on Monday 28 February that she was extremely concerned about how the crisis may pan out, expecting it to escalate according to information received by ECHO's partners in the United Nations and the Red Crescent, whose work was greatly praised by Georgieva. ECHO's experts were still on the borders of Libya on Monday, unable to enter the country, but the Commission is hoping to make use of their expertise to target properly identified needs when they are able to cross the border.
Georgieva said that in recent hours, the humanitarian situation has significantly deteriorated because there is little United Nations presence and few charities in Libya. The figures are difficult to assess but it is known that at least 100,000 people have fled the country since the start of the crisis. The number of victims is too hard to grasp but people talk of at least 1,000 and others of more than 2,000. There is also an unknown number of injured, she added. It is estimated that there are 1.5 million foreigners in Libya who may well try and leave and one thing is certain - the pressure at the borders will continue to build up.
The emergency aid decision decided on Friday is mainly for emergency medical supplies and aid needed at the Tunisian and Egyptian borders to help alleviate refugees' immediate needs. Medical teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières are working hard, but conditions are difficult, said Georgieva. Asked whether €3 million was a derisory sum, she said that she was aware that more would soon be needed as needs were rising but that was all she could find so fast because it is the standard amount of emergency humanitarian aid. The Commission's team of experts will be entering the country as soon as possible and the Commission is working with the United Nations on needs assessments. The Commission will be providing extra aid but for the moment partner organisations are after security rather than money. She said she had told them that the EU would be sending much more medical aid from the member states, with which the commissioner is in permanent contact. Georgieva has been in touch with the US under secretary for humanitarian aid. Everyone agrees that people must be ready to provide massive amounts of humanitarian aid and OCHA is preparing to boost its presence in Libya.
Still 650 Europeans to be evacuated. The only good news, according to the commissioner, is the fact that most of the 10,000 European passport-holders have now been evacuated, some by MIC, the EU's civil protection monitoring system responsible for coordinating offers of aid and the use of military equipment. She said the member states had cooperated immensely to make it possible to evacuate people by air or by ship to Egypt. She said the Commission had been monitoring the situation very closely with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Migrations Organisation, but the 650 Europeans still in Libya (who have requested evacuation) are in trouble and coordination will continue to work out how to rescue them.
The commissioner explained that the security situation in Libya is deteriorating and the most severe humanitarian needs were in the capital, Tripoli. She said that people needed to get across the border into Egypt or Tunisia as soon as possible but NATO's help is not needed at this stage, although things needed to be closely monitored. The organisations best able to help are the Libyan, Tunisian and Egyptian Red Crescent groups, along with the CICR. Another concern is haunting the commissioner, which is the hike in the price of food as a result of the increased oil prices because if this keeps up, it could force millions into famine. She said there were already a billion human beings suffering from famine before the Libyan crisis and more are likely to join their ranks. (A.N./transl.fl)