All participants at this year’s World Scout Jamboree in South Korea will be evacuated from the campsite before the scheduled end date of 12 August due to a typhoon that is expected to make landfall over the Korean peninsula in the coming days, in the latest blow to the event.
The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) said it had received confirmation from the South Korean government that, due to the expected impact of Typhoon Khanun, an early departure would be planned for all participants at the global youth event in the south-western county of Buan.
The WOSM said: “We urgently call on the government to expedite the plan for departure and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries.”
At a press briefing after the withdrawal announcement, the vice-minister for disaster and safety management, Kim Sung-ho, said the government planned to provide “comfortable and safe accommodation” for the scouts by securing administrative and private educational facilities centred as much as possible on the Seoul metropolitan area, which was not directly affected by the typhoon.
“The government will be fully prepared for the participants’ accommodation and jamboree programmes to continue for the remaining four nights and five days,” he said.
Local governments and cities across the country, including Incheon, North Gyeongsang province and Gyeongju, have been convening emergency meetings to support the young scouts with accommodation and experience programmes.
The event, which attracted 43,000 scouts from 158 countries, has been plagued by problems since it started on Tuesday, including a heatwave that resulted in hundreds of participants being treated for heat-related ailments, and reports of poor sanitation, waterlogged conditions caused by heavy rain, as well as rotten food and swarms of mosquitoes and flies.
Long before the events began, critics and local politicians raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to the site – a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat, made on land reclaimed from sea.
The British and American contingents announced on Friday they would be leaving the site.
On Monday, Matt Hyde, the chief executive of the UK Scouts, told the BBC poor sanitation and insufficient medical services had led to the 4,500-member UK contingent being moved from the campsite.
“We feel let down by the organisers because we repeatedly raised some of these concerns before we went, and during, and we were promised things were going to be put in place and they weren’t,” Hyde said.
“If you can imagine [toilets] that are being used by thousands and thousands of people that are not being cleared with the regularity you would expect, you can imagine the sort of things that people were seeing.”
Hyde said relocating 4,500 people had cost the Scout Association more than £1m, which had come from its reserves, and the cost would affect the organisation’s activities for up to five years.
Earlier on Monday, it was reported that Australia was also withdrawing its scouts and volunteers, due to the typhoon forecast. Singapore announced its contingent had chosen alternative accommodation but said it was still participating in the jamboree.
Conditions on the ground had been improving before Monday’s statement by the WOSM. The South Korean ministry of gender equality, which is in charge of the event, cited a recent survey that found only 4% of participants were extremely dissatisfied with their experiences so far.
The governor of North Jeolla province, which is hosting the event, has apologised to the public for causing concern, and said sanitary conditions including toilet facilities had been improving. Officials had sent scores of water trucks and air conditioners to keep participants cool, he added.
The head of South Korea’s ruling People Power party, Kim Gi-hyeon, also made a public apology on Monday, acknowledging the event had not gone smoothly and proposing an investigation into whether taxpayers’ money had been well spent on preparations for the jamboree.
On Sunday, the British adventurer Bear Grylls, who has been chief scout for the UK movement since 2009 and attended this year’s jamboree, praised the “tens of thousands of scouts who have battled some tough conditions in Korea”.
“The truth is a jamboree is wherever Scouts are,” he wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter . “It’s a community rather than a set location, and I know they will carry on with their adventures with the selfless determination and resourcefulness that they’ve shown throughout.”
What an incredible force for good the scouts are, especially when times get tough. So proud of all the tens of thousands of @worldscouting @scouts who have battled some tough conditions in Korea at the 25th World Scout Jamboree. The UK, USA, Singapore Scout contingents have… pic.twitter.com/Pc1TTo0758
— Bear Grylls OBE (@BearGrylls) August 6, 2023
Scout members will leave the campsite sequentially, starting on Tuesday at 10am, transported on more than 1,000 buses. Police and rescue services will assist in the evacuation process.
Associated Press contributed to this report
