Newsflash | 14 January 2010
Development minister Bert Koenders has decided to send an Urban Search and Rescue Team to Haiti.
The team comprises 60 members, with specially trained sniffer dogs to help search for the thousands of people still buried under the rubble. It is part of the international relief effort which is being led by the UN.
The team departed for Haiti in a transport aircraft provided by the Ministry of Defence.
Yesterday, Mr Koenders released €2 million for emergency aid for Haiti. Given the catastrophic scale of the disaster, the costs of the search and rescue team will also be paid from the development cooperation budget.