The Korea Overseas Emergency Relief Team (KDRT), which will carry out rescue and relief activities for residents at the site of the Turkiye camp, arrived on the 8th.
The KC-330 ‘Cygnus’, an Air Force multi-purpose aerial refueling transport aircraft boarded by KDRT members, took off from Incheon International Airport at around 1:13 am on the same day and landed at Turkiye Gaziantep Ouseli Airport after a 12-hour flight.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reported that “the military transport plane on board the KDRT arrived at Gaziantep Airport at 6:57 a.m. local time (12:57 noon our time) on the 8th.”
Our KDRT members consist of a total of 118 people, including about 60 officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Fire Administration, and KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency), and about 50 military personnel mainly from the Army Special Warfare Command. This is the largest relief team dispatched by the Korean government in the event of an overseas disaster.
It is known that the relief workers dispatched this time were organized around search and rescue experts at the request of the Turkish authorities.
After arriving in Turkiye, our relief workers are expected to begin their activities as soon as they finish dividing up their duties through discussions with local authorities and relief teams in each country.
Members of the Republic of Korea Emergency Rescue Team (KDRT) to search for missing people in the earthquake in Turkey are leaving the country through Incheon International Airport on the afternoon of the 7th. 2023.2.8 News 1 Along with the dispatch of the relief team, the Korean government also decided to provide humanitarian aid worth 5 million dollars (approximately 6.28 billion won) to Turkey. As a result, the KC-330 transport plane that arrived in Turkiye that day was loaded with first aid supplies such as medicines.
Hundreds of aftershocks have continued since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the 6th (local time) in southeastern Turkey, which borders Syria, and more than 6,000 people have died in both Turkey and Syria, resulting in loss of life and property. there is.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are currently about 2,700 Koreans living in Turkey, and about 100 of them are living in the area where the earthquake occurred. Some of these Koreans were injured as a result of the earthquake in Yibin, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “It has been confirmed that they are not in a serious condition.”
In addition, at the time of the earthquake, two students, including our international students, who were traveling in Hatay Province, which is adjacent to the epicenter, were temporarily out of contact due to local communication problems. is said to have moved.
On the 7th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a special travel advisory to six provinces in southeast Turkey, including Kahramanmaras, Malatya, Adiyaman, Osmaniye, Adana, and Hatay, which were affected by the earthquake, and stayed in these areas through local missions. We are recommending that our people in the middle of the day evacuate to a safe area.
A ‘special travel advisory’ is a travel warning issued to countries and regions with urgent short-term risks.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.