Estonian Foreign Ministry wants to send humanitarian mission to Jordan

Photo: Muhammad Hamed / Reuters

The Estonian  foreign ministry wants to send an Estonian rescue team to a humanitarian mission to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan and is prepared to finance the mission.

«The Foreign  Ministry would be interested in the participation of Estonian rescue mission (EDRT) members in a humanitarian relief mission in the Zaatar refugee camp in Jordan,» stands in a letter that Vaino Reinart, deputy secretary general of the Foreign Ministry foreign economic and development cooperation issues, sent to the Interior Ministry.

Reinart said that the Foreign Ministry was planning up to 300,000 euros for an assessment visit and for the mission itself.

At the beginning of January Foreign Minister Urmas Paet visited the Zaatar refugee camp in Jordan where more than 60,000 Syrian refugees had found asylum, most of them women and children.

«After the visit of the biggest refugee camp the Foreign Ministry started looking for opportunities how Estonia could give an additional contribution for the alleviation of the situation of these people,» a press officer for the Foreign Foreign Ministry told BNS.

The press officer said that dispatch of a rescue team to a possible mission was only in the phase of decision-making and it was still early to speak about its details. «In case of need we will consider dispatch of medics and of camp technicians,» the press officer added.

Estonian rescue missions have taken part in humanitarian relief mission in Namibia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Haiti and Ethiopia.

198,000 people have fled to Jordan, 215,000 to Lebanon, 156,000 to and 74,000 to Iraq. As many as four million people have been affected by the conflict and the number of displaced persons within the country has risen to two million people and nearly 60,000 people have been killed.  If it is not possible to put an end to the violence in Syria,  the number of Syrian refugees could rise to 1.1 million but this summer.

The Foreign Ministry has supported Syrian refugees in Jordan via the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees with 150,000 euros. Estonia has also allocated to the Red Cross 70,000 euros for supporting Syrian refugees in Turkey, 50,000 euros to the UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Bureau Syrian Relief Fund and 50,000 euros to the International Red Cross Committee for the people who have suffered in the Syrian crisis.