A Scot spearheading the UK Government’s humanitarian response to the Turkey and Syria earthquake says the devastation is worse than any war zone he’s ever worked in. Erlend Linklater has regularly faced danger in conflict-hit countries including Afghanistan, Colombia and Sudan during his career as an aid worker.
But the 48-year-old has told how the killer 7.8 magnitude earthquake earlier this year did more damage in 80 seconds than cities flattened by months of military bombing. Selkirk-born Erlend – a Humanitarian Advisor with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) – said: “I’ve worked in a lot of fragile conflict areas and what I’ve seen in some parts of Turkey looks like a war zone.
“What blows your mind is that the power of the earthquake has literally turned some buildings to dust. I’ve worked for a number of years in live conflicts with plenty of shooting and bombing going on but in terms of the impact emotionally, this is one of the hardest things I’ve had to work on.”
Erlend was scrambled into action less than two hours after the earthquake struck just after 4am on February 6. He helped oversee the deployment of 77 search and rescue experts from the UK – including four firefighters from Scotland – to help find survivors in the rubble.
Ankara-based Erlend also helped to coordinate the launch of a field hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey, which has treated more than 20,000 patients, as part of a £43million UK Government package of humanitarian support. He said: “What you see on telly can never prepare you for the full scale of the devastation when you see it with your own eyes.
“One of the drivers who showed us round said he’d lost 100 family and friends in the disaster. His entire social network has been utterly wiped out.”
Erlend’s job at the British Embassy in Ankara meant he was already assisting the 3.7million refugees who had fled civil war in Syria to cross the border into Turkey. Some 1.7million of them lived in the earthquake-hit area.
Added to that, at least 2.4million people now thought to be living in temporary sites having been displaced by the earthquake catastrophe.
He said: “The scale of the challenge facing us can seem so daunting but the fact the UK raised over £100million during a cost-of-living crisis shows the British public is right behind this response. We stand in solidarity with the people of Turkey and northern Syria in their hour of need.”
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