Tunisia-Foreign Affairs: emergency meeting with ICRC, IOM and UNHCR offices

An emergency meeting with the Tunis Offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was held on Thursday at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad.

The coordination meeting fits into the means to be implemented to ensure the safety of members of the Tunisian community in Ukraine and secure their evacuation by safe routes, said a press release from the Foreign Affairs Department.

It focused on the various aspects of possible cooperation with the offices of these organisations in Ukraine, Warsaw and Bucharest, in order to help ensure the evacuation of Tunisian nationals through safe corridors to land border crossings with Poland and Romania.

The ministry also asked to be informed as soon as possible of the measures that these organisations can take to facilitate evacuations in optimal conditions.

The representatives of the ICRC, IOM and UNHCR stressed that their offices in the countries concerned, as well as their headquarters in Geneva, are studying the situation and will draw up, on this basis, the necessary plans for the rescue and evacuation operations as well as the possible creation of humanitarian corridors.

They affirmed their full readiness to coordinate with the Tunisian authorities and to assist them in the evacuation operations in line with the development of the situation in the coming hours.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad called on members of the Tunisian community to be extremely vigilant and not to take the risk of leaving Ukraine without prior coordination.

It stated that it will keep Tunisian nationals informed of new directives and measures concerning the development of the situation and the evacuation operations.

(TAP)