Compared to 10 years ago, the number of humanitarian workers killed has increased threefold, and the number of kidnapped aid workers is five times higher. Last year, according to United Nations records, nearly 300 aid workers encountered some form of attack or violence; 102 of them were killed, and 92 were abducted. A decade ago, 65 aid workers were involved in similar situations.
“All these aid workers who are out there doing their fundamental work to save lives, sometimes are caught in situations beyond their control,” wrote Stephanie Bunker, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in a telephone interview.
“Humanitarian work doesn’t have a political or ideological agenda—it is about reaching the people in need,” says Bunker.
“I think it is important for people to remember that the need for humanitarian aid has increased over the years. The bottom line is that you cannot help people in need if it is too dangerous to reach them and if you are risking to be killed,” added Bunker.
Pakistan, suffering its worst humanitarian crisis in history with 17 million people now affected by severe flooding, has been an unsecure environment for aid workers for some time, says Bunker.
Last October, a suicide bomber attacked the Pakistan office of the U.N.’s World Food Program killing five staff members. Months before, an attack on a luxury hotel killed two U.N. officials and another U.N. staff member was killed in a camp in the same region. In an effort to protect its staff from further violence, the U.N. decided last December to reduce its staff in Pakistan by 40 percent.
In Somalia, 12 aid workers have been killed and 10 others abducted, in the last 18 months. The kidnapped workers are still missing.
In early August, six American, two European and two Afghan medical aid workers were killed returning from a medical mission in northern Afghanistan.
“So dangers are very real and we try our best to minimize the risk for aid workers but in many countries it is there,” admits Bunker.
The International Red Cross also reports increasing danger with its activities, especially in conflict zones.
“In the last years we have had several workers who were kidnapped. In Haiti, in Sudan, and in Darfur, some were taken as hostages for a number of months, throughout the years we had many colleagues who were killed in Iraq, in Afghanistan, we take precautions to lower the risk,” says Simon Schorno, Spokesman of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in North America.
Schorno says the lack of arms and the purely humanitarian activities add to the dangers for the humanitarian workers.
“We do not work with guards, we do not carry any weapons or any casks, so the only protection we have got when we work in the fields, is the Red Cross symbol,” he said.
Western Workers as Targets
However, experience shows that locals on the ground don’t necessarily see it that way.
Westerners who work as humanitarian staff, are sometimes not positively perceived while doing relief work, especially in Islamic countries and places where Caucasians are perceived as “rich” or “arrogant” exploiters. In some cases this is due to religious concerns, while in others it is based on cultural and educational background.
“The perception that humanitarian aid is being delivered solely by Western groups and that it is representative of certain religions or ideologies have made aid workers targets of violence,” read a U.N. statement marking the second World Humanitarian Day two weeks ago.
For example, in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is seen as preferable to send Muslim humanitarian workers from Malaysia or Singapore, instead of Westerners, says a former Indonesian Red Cross emergency relief worker who wished to remain anonymous.
“Some local people, even military think that Western relief workers might be CIA, FBI, or any international undercover agents,” he says.
Misperceptions
“The vast majority of the people who have been harmed as a result of attackers’ deeds are actually national staff and people working in their own countries to help their fellow citizens. That’s a real shame,” she said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has 1,300 expatriates and 14,000 national staff around the world. They work in about 80 countries.
ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno admits the misperception of the Red Cross as primarily a Western organization creates problems. However, like Bunker, he says being a Western aid worker is actually still safer than being a local.
“Are white workers more vulnerable to attacks? I would say no, but quite the opposite, around the world what we see is that the people who are primarily injured or killed are nationals from the countries and not expatriates,” says Schorno.
One reason, he says, is that local staff work close to the ground, and therefore very close to the action. Because of this, they are often taken hostage or killed.
“The perception that it is always the Westerners who get attacked or suffers the consequences is a mishap. Sure, some expatriates get killed or shot, but most often it is the national staff that is attacked.”
“So when I work as an expatriate in Afghanistan, I work with maybe 10 Afghan people. Of course, this is a plus, because they know better the situation,” he said.
A second reason why it can be especially dangerous for national staff, explains Schorno, is that locals “can be perceived by the other people in the community as collaborators for example. That is why often they are the targets.”
He says relief organizations are often thought to be associated with government aid, so the attackers think it is legitimate to attack them. He is reluctant to point fingers at any particular group behind such attacks, but one thing he is sure of is that [the] ICRC needs to put in greater effort into explaining clearly that they are independent, neutral, and explain what that means.
“It is our job to explain better who we are and what we are doing,” says Schorno.
