EU member states to coordinate evacuation of aid workers from West Africa

A new joint system to coordinate the evacuation of aid workers affected by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is currently being finalized by the European Union and could be rolled out “in a matter of weeks,” Devex has learned. The initiative follows a French proposal supported by the European Commission and ministers from among the 28 EU member states at a high-level meeting in Brussels Sept. 15 attended by Commission officials, EU ministers and representatives from United Nations agencies, Médecins Sans Frontières and other international nongovernmental organizations involved in the response to the epidemic. According to French Health Minister Marisol Touraine, the proposal’s twin goals are to reassure organizations and their staff, and ensure the continuity of aid on the ground. “If we want humanitarian workers to work in Africa, they must be certain that they can return home if they become ill,” she said during the meeting. “That’s why I have called for the coordination of the evacuation of health professionals who are afflicted. We need to put into place air capacity to bring Ebola victims to our hospitals.” In the past few weeks, France has been at the forefront of the EU’s response to the crisis. Click on the below clip to find out more in our video interview with French Minister of State for Development and Francophonie Annick Girardin. Although details remain scarce, Devex understands that the idea is to create a so-called “single entry system” where member states pool their capacities to transport evacuees and offer them medical treatment in isolation wards at specialist hospitals in Europe. Meanwhile, an alert system would allow the bloc’s countries to exchange and coordinate requests and offers for help, in order to establish as soon as possible which country can take care of the patient. In addition to France and according to various EU sources contacted by Devex, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom, and possibly Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands are set to take part in the initiative from the outset, although it is not yet clear whether more countries will follow suit. As of late September, only three EU member states — Germany, Spain and the U.K. — had evacuated aid workers from Ebola-affected countries, making use of their specific capacities to transport affected individuals and offer them specialized assistance. Spain used a military aircraft fitted out with specially adapted equipment, while a German epidemiologist who was working in Sierra Leone is now being treated at a university clinic in Hamburg. On Sept. 13, two Dutch doctors that had been deployed to a hospital in Yele, Sierra Leone, were rushed home after one of them had unprotected contact with a medical worker who later died of Ebola. The two doctors returned on a private flight chartered by their Dutch NGO employer, the Lionheart Foundation, and their insurance company, with assistance from the Dutch Foreign Ministry. Although the two doctors tested negative for the virus, they remain under quarantine. At the Yele hospital, meanwhile, another aid worker has since died of the virus and the region is still on high alert. Are you an aid worker helping to tackle Ebola on the ground in West Africa or at headquarters level? Do you think the response is working, or are new systems, more effective coordination and more joint responses to the crisis still needed to stem the tide? Have your say by leaving a comment below or contact us by email at news@devex.com. Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.