Following the damage caused by Hurricane Beryl, which struck the Caribbean at the beginning of July, Luxembourg responded favourably to a request for international assistance from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to support the affected populations of the islands of Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Luxembourg government sent a member of the Humanitarian Intervention Team (HIT) of the Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS) to take part in the recovery efforts, as part of OCHA's United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team. Deployed in the early stages of an emergency, this team assesses international relief needs and coordinates support efforts on the ground.
In the same context, and as part of the International Humanitarian Partnership, of which Luxembourg is a member, two other members of the HIT were deployed on 5 July to the affected areas to support the UNDAC team with logistical and technical resources, including the emergency.lu satellite communications platform deployed by the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade.
The CGDIS intervention group responsible for civil security and humanitarian missions intervenes outside Luxembourg territory in the event of very serious calamitous events on the orders of the government, or at the request of the country or countries concerned, or as part of international assistance.
emergency.lu is a mobile satellite communications platform whose primary objective is to restore communications (Internet, voice) after a disaster, to support the coordination efforts of humanitarian organisations in the field and thus contribute to saving lives in humanitarian emergencies. This is a public-private partnership between the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs and three Luxembourg companies (SES Telecom Services, Hitec Luxembourg and Luxembourg Air Ambulance S.A.). 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 International Humanitarian Partnership (IHP) is a voluntary multinational network of government emergency management agencies active in the field of humanitarian assistance. The various agencies are funded and supported by their respective governments. The overall objective of the IHP is to improve emergency response by supporting operational actors in the fields of humanitarian assistance and coordination in order to save lives and reduce the impact of conflicts and natural disasters.
Press release by the 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