Injured children to be evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment

The seven children and 27 persons accompanying them are currently on board six Rega and Swiss Air Force aircraft, scheduled to land at Zurich, Geneva and Lugano airports today. From there, the injured children will be taken to hospitals in the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Ticino, Basel-Stadt, Lucerne and St Gallen. All are suffering from war injuries and require highly specialised medical treatment.

Close cooperation between the Confederation and the cantons

The Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP), the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS), the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) were involved at federal level in the evacuation. The seven children and the persons accompanying them were transported to Jordan on Wednesday by the WHO and MSF, supported by medical personnel from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA), where they received medical care. Transport to Switzerland was organised and financed by the FDFA and carried out by Rega and the Federal Air Transport Service, which is part of the Swiss Air Force.

Before arriving in Switzerland, the federal security authorities carried out security checks on all the individuals. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) will allocate the injured children and the persons accompanying them - who will all go through the asylum process - to the respective cantons in which the children will be receiving hospital care. The exception is the children being treated in St Gallen, who will be accommodated in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. The accompanying persons will live in accommodation provided by the cantons or SEM close to the respective hospital.

Further evacuations in preparation

Prior to the evacuation, several cantons agreed to treat the seven injured children in their university and cantonal hospitals and take in their accompanying family members. As part of this first evacuation, six cantons are housing injured children and their accompanying family members: Appenzell Ausserrhoden is taking two children, while Basel-Stadt, Geneva, Vaud, Lucerne and Ticino are taking one each. Allocation is based on medical criteria. The costs of treatment are being covered by the cantons in which the hospital is located or by the hospitals themselves where the costs are not covered by compulsory health insurance.

The Confederation and the cantons plan to admit a total of 20 injured children to Switzerland. Preparations are under way for a second operation to evacuate a further 13 children and their accompanying persons. The WHO has registered 15,000 patients for evacuation from Gaza. Of these, 4,000 are children, many of whom are seriously injured and in urgent need of medical treatment.

Address for enquiries:

State Secretariat for Migration Daniel Bach [email protected]

Publisher:

Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport
Federal Department of Justice and Police