It is the goal of emergency.lu to help reestablish communication networks in war zones. The platform, which is operated by the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, was supposed to deploy a satellite in Ukraine, but so far, this operation has remained impossible.
Following a request from the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), emergency.lu sent two employees and satellite equipment to the Polish border with Ukraine on 15 March. A comparable operation usually takes 24 hours, but so far, the mission has not been successful.
Manuel Tonnar from the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, provided insight into the process: “We are positioned at the Ukrainian border in Poland. We hoped that humanitarian corridors would be open by now so that we can execute our mission. It was never planned to stay and wait in Poland for such a long time.”
Despite international pressure, attempts to open humanitarian corridors have been in vain.
Luxembourg provides the emergency.lu services as a free global public good. The service was founded by the Luxembourg Government and three companies (SES Networks, HITEC Luxembourg and Luxembourg Air Ambulance) following the Haiti earthquake in 2010.
