Irish aid workers to leave for Gulf tomorrow

A team of three Trócaire aid workers is preparing to leave for the Gulf region tomorrow to join a huge international humanitarian relief campaign.

GOAL already has two Irish staff in the region, one in Kuwait and the other in Jordan. Concern has staff in Kurdish territory in northern Iraq; others are in Jordan and Kuwait.

The United Nations has estimated that up to 11 million Iraqis may need immediate humanitarian aid as result of the US-led attack. The UN also said as many as 150,000 people are expected to flee from the central and southern Iraq into the north and border regions of Iraq, and over half a million Iraqis may leave the country.

Trócaire and Concern have each allocated around €100,000 for their operations in Iraq. The three charities have called on the public and business interests to increase donations to help them deal with what they fear could be a humanitarian disaster.

The Trócaire group will join an international Emergency Response Support Team, under the umbrella of Caritas Internationalis, a network of more than 150 Catholic agencies.

A Trócaire spokeswoman, Ms Caroline Lynch, said part of their mission will include helping rural villages to prepare for an influx of refugees from battle-zone areas of Iraq. A separate operation will educate refugees of the dangers of minefields in the areas they are travelling through and ensure the danger zones are clearly marked.

Trócaire has, over the past few months, spent €70,000 on disaster preparations, including training over 260 medical staff and volunteers in first aid in 32 health centres and health posts throughout Iraq.

Bishop John Kirby, Trócaire chairman, described the US-led war on Iraq as n "undermining of international law" that could have "potentially horrific humanitarian consequences". He said the charity would not accept money for its emergency work from either the US or British governments.

GOAL said that although their resources are limited and there is much uncertainty within the region, they plan to co-ordinate with other aid agencies to assist families fleeing cities in southern Iraq.

"Hopefully this will be a short war, and casualties will be few, but we do not know what is going to happen," said Mr Ray Jordan, from Kuwait. "Millions of people in Iraq are already dependent on food aid, and that supply line is now in serious danger of being cut".