European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed Sunday that the EU has already sent 38 rescue teams from 21 member countries to Turkey, totaling 1,651 specialists and 106 rescue dogs.
In addition Von der Leyen stressed that twelve member states have sent 50,000 family tents, 100,000 blankets and 50,000 heaters and the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Center has mobilized 500 houses from the EU rescue reserve hosted by Sweden, 2,000 tents and 8,000 beds that were stored in Romania.
Finally, a team of eleven EU Civil Protection experts have been deployed to support the Turkish authorities in coordinating the deployment of EU assistance.
These figures have been published in a press release on the telephone conversation held this Sunday between Von der Leyen and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to whom she has conveyed her «most sincere condolences» for the «catastrophic loss» caused by the earthquake.
Von der Leyen also informed Erdogan of the forthcoming convening of a donor conference for Turkey and Syria in coordination with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, to be held in March in Brussels.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that last Monday’s earthquakes in northwestern Syria have so far left at least 9,300 dead in the Arab republic; a figure which, added to the 29,605 deaths confirmed so far by Turkey, brings the total death toll in both countries to 38,905.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
