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Red tape hampers tsunami aid
03/05/2005 14:09 - (SA)
Sydney - Hundreds of containers holding supplies for tsunami victims are stranded on a wharf in Sri Lanka because customs officers are demanding extra taxes and storage fees, according to angry Australian charity workers.
Chris O'Dempsey, director and founder of Heart Reach Australia, told Tuesday's The Australian newspaper he saw hundreds of relief containers from around the world at a naval port facility in the capital Colombo during a visit last week.
"I'm just so angry," he told the newspaper.
"I've been involved in sending containers of supplies around the world for a long time now, and I've seen the difference it can make to people's lives.
"But to have it stopped by the bureaucracy and bloody-mindedness - I wanted to kick a wall in."
Heart Reach Australia and smaller Australian charities have sent 20 containers of clothing, kitchen utensils and household tools. After donors were approached to pay the additional fees, 17 of the containers were released.
Geoff Gambin, the head of Sydney-based charity Just Enough Faith, told the paper his group had already paid $1 560 in extra taxes on the eight containers it had sent, with a $10 000 bill outstanding.
A storage fee of $103 a day was being charged while charities raised the money demanded for the goods to be cleared.
"It's a bloody disgrace," Gambin was quoted as saying. "I just don't know what to do.
"Our people approached the ministry of social services over there but they basically said 'bad luck'."
Even lobbying by Sri Lankan cricket star Muttiah Muralitharan, who is working to help Just Enough Faith, has failed to secure the release of the goods.
The paper said charity representatives were often told the charges were necessary because the goods were not "official" donations.
The December 26 tsunami killed nearly 31 000 people in Sri Lanka and initially left one million homeless.
- AFP
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