A joint task force of 53 specialists involved in search, rescue, protection and relief of collapsed structures will travel this Wednesday from Portugal to Turkey after three earthquakes rocked the region.
The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority said in a statement that the mission is to depart from AT1 (Terminal Militar de Figo Maduro) attached to Lisbon Airport after 2:30 pm.
The force consists of “National Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) operatives, the National Republican Guard, the Zapadores Fire Regiment, and the National Emergency Medical Institute.”
Portugal is sending humanitarian aid following a request for international assistance made by the Turkish authorities through the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
The Minister of the Interior (MAI), José Luis Carneiro, had already announced on Tuesday in Coimbra the dispatch of this force of 53 elements that would leave Portugal “to join European efforts of a humanitarian nature for civil protection and, especially in the case of Portuguese support in the framework of search and rescue works”.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the same meeting with the mayors of the central region of Coimbra, President of the National Office for Emergency Situations and Civil Protection Duarte da Costa explained that “the methods needed to bring forces into Turkey, together with other European efforts and other European forces that are currently being prepared.”
The latest balance shows that more than seven thousand people died after the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey.
Author: morning Post
Source: CM Jornal
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