Russian Red Cross to insure volunteers in crisis zones
09/02/2015, Moscow
The International Red Cross/Red Crescent (ICRC) has already insured the first 30 volunteers working with the Russian Red Cross providing humanitarian assistance to refugees from Ukraine. The insurance provides life and health cover.
The ICRC has launched a programme to insure through their national federations volunteers providing humanitarian assistance in cases of natural disasters and crises of various kinds, including armed conflict situations, starting from January 2015, in case of loss of life, injury, or damage to their health. Davron Mukhamadiev, head of the regional office of the ICRC in Russia, said that volunteers play a major role in such crisis situations. Over the past four years of the Syrian crisis 48 volunteers lost their lives during missions, eight were injured during the Ukrainian crisis, and currently hundreds of volunteers are working in ebola-stricken parts of Africa. That is why it is necessary to provide the legal basis for insurance cover for them, he said. Previously the ICRC used to provide such insurance cover only in the course of operations directly organised by the organisation itself, including during the major flooding in Siberia and the Far East of Russia. From 2015 insurance cover is extended to all volunteers working in humanitarian relief with the Russian Red Cross or another national organisation.
By Yulia Vyatkina
