How not to respond to the Japanese disaster - 1)

I am stunned to read in the News and Star that an aid worker from Penrith, who was part of a 14-strong team from the "International Rescue Corps" flown out to Japan to help with the disaster, had to return home with the rest of the group because of problems with paperwork.

You can read the details here.

I am pleased to read that a government minister, Alistair Burt, has promised to investigate.

One had better not junp to conclusions about whether the fault lies with the British authorities, the Japanese ones, or the organisers who sent the team out there, but to have the situation where people who are willing to help with a desperate crisis are flown to the other side of the world and told to come back again is absolutely beyond belief.

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