Luxembourg Sends 3 Humanitarian Intervention Team Members to Areas Affected by Hurricane Beryl

Luxembourg's Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade and the Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS) have announced the deployment of three members of the CGDIS Humanitarian Intervention Team (HIT) and an emergency.lu system in areas affected by Hurricane Beryl.

Following the damage caused by Hurricane Beryl which hit the Caribbean at the start of July 2024, three members of the CGDIS, in their role as representatives of the HIT specialised intervention group, have been deployed. This was in response to a request for international assistance from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to supporting affected populations on the islands of Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

One HIT member travelled to the Caribbean in a first phase to assess international relief needs and to coordinate support efforts, as part of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team. Two additional HIT members were deployed within the framework of the International Humanitarian Partnership (IHP) network to the affected areas on Friday 5 July 2024 to support the UNDAC team with logistical and technical means, in particular the emergency.lu satellite communication platform.

The authorities noted that the CGDIS intervention group responsible for civil security and humanitarian missions intervenes outside the territory of Luxembourg in the event of serious disastrous events by order of the government, either at the request of the country or countries concerned, or within the framework of international assistance.

Emergency.lu is a mobile satellite telecommunications platform whose primary objective is to restore means of communication (internet, voice) after a disaster, to support the coordination efforts of humanitarian organisations on the ground and thus contribute to saving human lives in humanitarian emergencies. This is a public-private partnership formed between the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of Luxembourg's Foreign Ministry and three Luxembourg companies (SES Telecom Services, Hitec Luxembourg and Luxembourg Air Ambulance SA). Luxembourg provides emergency.lu services as a free global public good to the humanitarian community. The same services are offered to the population and governments of the affected countries.

The authorities added that the IHP is a voluntary multinational network of government emergency management agencies active in the field of humanitarian assistance. The different agencies are funded and supported by their respective governments. The overall objective is to improve emergency response by supporting operational actors in the areas of humanitarian assistance and coordination in order to save lives and reduce the impact of conflicts and natural disasters.