Iraq: ICRC assists families visiting detained relatives
14-11-2005 News Release No 05/81
The ICRC has started a programme to help families of detainees being held at Camp Bucca visiting them there. Most of the families, who come from all over Iraq, live in conflict areas and cannot afford the long and expensive trip to Camp Bucca, which is in the extreme south of the country.
The programme provides monthly financial aid for close relatives to cover part of their travel expenses, such as transportation and accommodation. Since it started two weeks ago, some 800 families have already benefited.
As an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose mandate is to protect and assist people affected by armed conflict, the ICRC strives to monitor the conditions of detention and the treatment of detainees in Iraq. It also endeavours to respond to urgent needs for humanitarian action resulting from the hostilities.
For more information, please call:
Karl Mattli, ICRC Iraq, tel. +962 6 568 86 45
Dorothea Krimitsas, ICRC Geneva, tel. + 41 22 730 25 90 or + 41 79 251 93 18