(Jul. 3) – The flight carrying the Italian field hospital that will provide medical assistance for over 25,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan left this morning from Orio al Serio (Bergamo) airport. “We are standing by the Syrian people. Not just by supporting the international community’s efforts to find a solution to the crisis but by providing aid and assistance for the population hit by this increasingly intolerable humanitarian tragedy”. This was the comment of Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, who pointed out that the Italian Development Cooperation initiative, in collaboration with the Civil Protection Department and the Associazione Nazionale Alpini, follows on from a previous dispatch of medical kits to Syrian and Lebanon. Minister Terzi discussed Italy’s humanitarian commitment yesterday with his Jordanian counterpart, Judeh, during a telephone conversation focusing on the regional repercussions of the Syrian crisis. The phone call took place in the run-up to the meeting of the Group of Friends of the Syrian People, which will be taking place in Paris on Friday 6 July 2012 as part of the on-going political dialogue between Italy and Jordan. The Italian hospital will be able to help up to 100 people a day, and provide medical-cardiology, traumatology, obstetrics and paediatric services. It also has diagnostics equipment, a pharmacy, and an in-patients section. On reaching Jordan, the structure will be transferred to the Mafraq area, near the Syrian-Jordan border and about 80km from Amman and 10km from the border itself. Here, personnel from Italian Development Cooperation, the Civil Protection Department and the Associazione Nazionale Alpini will get the hospital up and running. The structure will then be operated by the Jordanian authorities and will support Jordan’s own health centres in treating Syrian refugees and the local population. (red)
