Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade

Humanitarian Work in Syria: Discussion with Médicines sans Frontières

2:45 pm

Ms Jane-Ann McKenna:

On the question about the Syrian Red Crescent, the majority of the aid distributed through that organisation is distributed in the areas controlled by the Syrian Government. A number of months ago we sent medical supplies through the Syrian Red Crescent. We have received confirmation that these supplies reached the intended hospital. Apart from that, we do not have much to say about the Red Crescent because MSF does not work alongside it. We are not working in the same areas. Therefore, it is very difficult to comment on the activities of the Red Crescent. I believe it is now working in co-operation with a number of other organisations to try to deliver assistance in those areas.

MSF has a presence in a camp which is in the Kurdish region of Iraq. I am not certain of the ethnicity of those Syrian refugees who have gone to that camp. We provide basic health care and psychological consultations in that camp.