Life as a refugee support volunteer with it's occasional victories and frequent defeats.

Occasional Victories is a place for links, news, rants and raves about Refugee related issues.

If you would like to contribute just drop me an email at carigeen(a)yahoo.com

 
Today's Guardian has .....

Aid decamped

Nick Cater on the International Red Cross and its struggle to keep its head above water

There is the danger of a sad end to a once-great organisation.

The article very much reflects our experience with the Red Cross in Ireland over the years. Essentially the IRC is a branch of the Department of Defence. One government department cannot ever be seen to criticise another. This being a reasonably stable and unthreatned democracy, the Department of Justice has much more power then the Department of Defence.

So we have the obsession with trivalities, such as first aid, and the steadfast refusal to get involved in any real issues. IRC has no membership of the Irish Refugee Council or Integrating Ireland.

A year ago a man died on site and we were trying to get his body from Warsaw to his home village. I phoned the Irish Red Cross asking for help and was given the phone number of the ICRC in Geneva!
posted by Carigeen at Thursday, December 04, 2003