7 Mar 2011

GENEVA / LIBYA FLASH APPEAL WRAP

The UN and its partners today launched a $160 million appeal to address humanitarian needs arising from the crisis in Libya. Over the weekend, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos travelled to the Tunisia-Libya border to review ongoing relief efforts. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Abdul Ilah Khatib as special envoy to Libya. UNTV / OCHA / FILE

Posted at: March 7, 2011 4:37 pm

Duration: 02:03

Available in: SD

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STORY: GENEVA / REGIONAL FLASH APPEAL WRAP
TRT: 2:03
SOURCE: UNTV / OCHA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 7 MARCH 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / 5 MARCH 2011, TUNISIA – LIBYAN BORDER / FILE

RECENT - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior UN Geneva headquarters

7 MARCH 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Various shots, heads of UN humanitarian agencies at meeting
3. Wide shot, press conference room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations: 
"It will ensure that migrants who leave Libya for Tunisia, Egypt and Niger receive adequate humanitarian relief and that they are transported to their country of origin promptly."
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations: 
"I would like to underline that all the people we helped didn't want to migrate to the developed world, they just wanted to go back home, I think this is also a lesson that the international has received from these tens of thousands of people in distress."
6. Cutaway, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations: 
"Europeans were quickly evacuated by their countries.  Asians are being able to come to the borders, many of them are still trapped, but sub Saharan Africans seem to be in a very dramatic situation and my appeal is for a mobilization of the international community in their support."
8. Cutaway, journalists

5 MARCH 2011, TUNISIA – LIBYAN BORDER

9. Various shots, Under-Secretary-General Valerie Amos at border 
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations: 
"My job is to plan for worse case scenario. I have to say in a situation that we're in now it feels to me as if things are going to get much worse before they get better." 
11. Various shots, refugees waiting for food
12. Various shots, refugees carrying baggage

FILE – 28 SEPTEMBER 2007, UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK

13. Various shots former Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah Al-Khatib addressing the General Assembly
 
STORYLINE:

The United Nations (UN) and its partners today launched a $160 million appeal to address humanitarian needs arising from the crisis in Libya, where the Government's violent crackdown against protesters demanding the ouster of Muammar Al-Qadhafi has sent around 200,000 people fleeing to neighbouring countries.

During a press conference in Geneva, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said the appeal will "ensure that migrants who leave Libya for Tunisia, Egypt and Niger receive adequate humanitarian relief and that they are transported to their country of origin promptly."

The appeal will help fund the current and planned activities of 17 aid groups in assisting people who have fled and for other affected people in Libya for the next three months, covering areas such as food security, nutrition, health care, water and sanitation and shelter.

Also speaking at the press conference, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres thanked the agencies and Governments which had helped with the massive repatriation exercise. Of the 120,000 people who had crossed the border into Tunisia, most of whom were migrant workers from different countries, only 15,000 were left as of today.

Guterres expressed concern that "Sub-Saharan Africans seem to be in a very dramatic situation" and appealed "for a mobilization of the international community in their support."

Over the weekend, Amos travelled to the Tunisia-Libya border to review the ongoing relief effort for people fleeing Libya amid the recent violence. She said that the situation in the area is "going to get much worse before they get better."

Both Amos and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have been calling for urgent humanitarian access for aid groups to people affected by the violence, which began in mid-February.

The Secretary-General has named Abdelilah Al-Khatib, a former foreign minister of Jordan, as his Special Envoy to Libya to undertake urgent consultations with the authorities in Tripoli and in the region on the immediate humanitarian situation as well as the wider dimensions of the crisis.