International Search and Rescue in the United Kingdom - Case Study Example

Running Head: International Search and Rescue International Search and Rescue Student’s Name Professor’s Name Subject Code and Name Date Submitted International Search and Rescue Introduction The United Kingdome Search and Rescue Team is one of the United Kingdom’s Specialist rapid interventions. It is concerned with oversee operations which are inform of humanitarian operations. Some of the cases in which they can participate include times of war, natural disasters and calamities such as earthquakes, floods, and climatic catastrophes among others. The force is usually standby and its operations are usually funded by the government. This unit has been in operation as early as 1967. Its officers have been involved in both home and international rescue missions and have participated in several international rescuing like the Haiti earthquake. The team has been registered with the British government, the United Nations and the International Civil Defense Organization. As Zainab, (2010, p. 67) reports, the team has some subspecialties. These include major flooding response, missile or bomb attacks and heavy casualty extractions as a result of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. These specialties are for the purpose of ensuring that each specialist will be able to respond adequately to the disaster which they are specialist in. When there is an earthquake which causes a lot of human casualties, the subspecialty in the earthquakes will move with speed to avoid human suffering in that area. As a result, and in a way to agree with Zainab, (2010, p. 68) there is reduction of the number of casualties and deaths and ensuring that the casualties receive the appropriate care. In addition, they also have medical specialist which usually accompanies any rescue operation. This is because any disaster causes a lot of harm to the health of the people and thus emergence treatment is a very important component of any rescue mission being carried. The officers from this department have received a lot of commendations for the role they have played in the international scene and the lives they have saved (Zainab, 2010, p. 74). Usually, the force goes to any place which has suffered from a major catastrophe. With the funding from the government and other well-wishers from the United Kingdom, it is possible for the force to carry its duties without running short of resources. The team presents the casualties with a very valuable opportunity to live. They participate in the emergency response; evacuate people from the area of disaster. After the evacuation, they also treat those who have been injured or those who need medical attention for free. This makes it possible for the team to provide health to those who need it. They also participate in the provision of shelter and food and other basic needs to the population which has been affected by the disaster. It can be said it is the only avenue for the provision of aid from the United Kingdom to another country which has been affected by a natural disaster. International Law on Search and Rescue According to Zainab (2010, p. 78), in 1979, a convention was held in Hamburg to establish the international and rescue plan which would be able to provide emergency services in case of a disaster. This would be able to respond to any disaster which occurs regardless of the place of occurrence. This indicated that the team will carry out its work in cooperation with any other nation which is part of the search and rescue operation team. This made it possible for any nation which is willing to help in the rescue mission. As a result, many nations established a team which would be responsible for such responses. The teams were composed of highly qualified people in the rescue operations. Such teams are the work which work hand in hand with the international force for rescue and thus provide the needed essential services to the affected people in the affected region. The services may include the airlifting of the casualties, the provision of medical services to casualties, the provision of food and shelter to affected people among other services. The organization will be required to register with the international bodies which are concerned with the rescue operations. First, it will be necessary for it to register with the United Nations. In times of a disaster, the United Nations is the one is supposed to coordinate all activities which regard to rescue operations in the international arena. Any disaster which takes place in the world is supposed to be taken care of by the United Nations. The United Nations then invites any other country to come and help. These nations must be registered with the United Nations. The registration is very important. The reasons which make the registration important include the following. For effective communication between the rescue teams, there need a chain of command which will give guide lines on how the operations to take place. Without a proper chain of command, there is likely to be a lot of confusion and the delivery of services might be compromised leading to poor performance. As a result, the rescue mission may not succeed. This chain of command also ensures that the rescue teams complement each other and ensure that the missions do not conflict in the process of rescue. Registration of the rescue teams helps the United Nations to establish a mechanism of training them (Zainab, 2010, p.82). This makes it possible for the rescue teams to acquire the right skills such that they can adequately respond to the disasters. They can provide the manuals and the protocols for training of the members of the team. The common training helps the teams work in unison when participating in the rescue mission. There is enough cooperation between the team members since they have similar training. In addition, the members are able to acquire the basic skills for the rescue operations. The operation is usually very critical it needs a lot of training and a lot of skills. To acquire these skills, the members of the rescue teams are supposed to learn the basic skills of operation. It is for these reasons that the United Nations provides the essential training to the team members and thus makes them understand how to carry out these operations. The training is necessary for the efficiency in operation and in the protection of the team members from falling victims of the disaster. For example in case of fires, the team members need to know how they can perform the operation without risking their lives (Zainab, 2010, p. 95). Ethical Issues Zainab (2010, p. 97) is concerned that the fire authority will have to face some ethical issues in the process of entering the international rescue mission. First, the organization must be prepared to contribute to the whole world without discriminating against race or color. Some of the disasters will happen in countries which may even not be in the United Kingdom or even in Europe. Most of the disasters take place in the third world countries especially those in Africa. Most disasters occur in poor countries. For example, one of the worst disasters happened in Haiti, one of the poor countries in the world. Thus, the team members must be prepared to work without considering the race of an individual. The international rescue mission may involve any country in the world and the guiding principle should be fair treatment of all people regardless of their race or color. Operating in poor environment is also another factor which will come into play. As mentioned above, most of the disasters which will warrant international intervention occur in the third world countries. These countries are very poor and the living conditions there are likely to be very poor. This may make the living conditions in such places very bad. This is as opposed to the living conditions in the United Kingdom which are of very high class. Rendering emergency services to disaster stricken areas demands that the team members spend some considerable time in such a place and thus the living conditions in such places may be a very important part of their mission. The third world countries may not have the services which are present in the first world countries. The team members may find difficulties in the process of trying to adjust to the poor standards of living (Oscar, 2010, p. 77). Oscar (2010, p. 77) argues that the team members must also be ready to sacrifice. This is because the countries they are likely to render their services in are likely to belong to the world’s poor and thus cannot be able to pay them. As a result, it will create problems in the provision of the services. The team will be supposed to depend on the government and well-wishers for their participation in such activities. It is more of sacrifice than any other form of service since it will not be possible to demand any compensation from the people they are serving. In addition, their funding may also be a problem. Previously, the funding was from the local government or the county government. This is because the organization was operating in the county. Now that they want to enter the international arena, it will not be possible to receive such funding. The county government may not be able to provide for the internal and external operations. Operations within the county will demand the funding by the county government. This would make it hard for the team to be able to get the funding as it used to be (Clay, 2010, p. 573). Globalization As opposed to the olden days when it was not possible to move from one point of the world to another, currently, communication has reached a very advanced stage (Oscar, 2010, p. 79). At this Era, someone in the United Kingdom can easily communicate with another one in a very far area. This has made it possible for someone to operate in the whole world relatively easier than before. The channels of communication have been improved greatly and it is very easy to move from one region of the world to another. Movement of goods and other assets from one country to another is also very easy. An organization can easily transport its assets from one part of the world another where there is need and this ensures that there are no transport barriers (Stevenson, 2010, p.133). With globalization, the team will be able to access information about any disaster which has happened in any part of the world. It will be very easy to know the exact places where disasters have happened. Communication will be very easy and the team will be able to respond to disasters very quickly since the information will be transmitted very quickly ensuring that they act very fast. In the early days when the means of communication were very poor, to communicate was a big problem. The sending of a mail from one region to another was a nightmare to the organization. Another important advantage of globalization is the movement of the assets of organization from the United Kingdom to the area of disaster. The movement of the property is easier now because of globalization. The rescue team can be moving with its assets to the places of rescue and ensure that there is no delay in the provision of rescue services due to the shortage of tools of work. They can also move from place to place easily without delay. When there is an alarm about a disaster which has taken place in an area, the team can move very fast and start offering rescue services without much delay. The United Kingdom rescue services were able to reach Haiti easily without getting transport inconveniences. The transportation has become very easy along nations and within a day, a rescue team can be able to arrive at the site of disaster. Globalization has also made it possible for people to speak the same language. Although there is some language barrier problem expected, it is currently easier to operate in any part of the world than it was some years back. Because of people mixing as a result of globalization, there has been a significant decrease of communication barrier between people who come from the different parts of the world. As a result, the communication between people has improved and the teams which are part of the international rescue can easily carry out rescue missions in different areas without difficulties. As a result, the cost of preparing for the rescue process is less and the rescue process might be more successful than it would have been without globalization. Globalization has also made it possible for the essential goods to reach almost every part of the world (Stevenson, 2010, p.139). This means that the rescue team does not necessarily need to transport all they need to provide for the people who are in the area of the disaster. Foodstuffs and clothes can be bought at the area of disaster. What the organization needs to do is to carry the money which is easier to transport to the affected area and buy what is needed from there. In addition, the team members are able to access goods for their consumption without difficulties and as a result, it will not cost them a lot of money in transportation costs to the affected area. Globalization has lead to increase in the information available on disasters in different places. The team members can access all the information they need from the internet among other sources. As a result, they will be able to understand the management of different international disasters without having to look for the information seriously. To get such information, the team will incur very little expense or even get the information for free. The information on the different strategies on the disaster management is easily available. Training the members on the disaster management will be easier than it would have been before. Globalization has improved the coordination between different teams operating in different countries. This makes it possible to receive information and disseminate it to the relevant people. As a result, it will be possible for the team to receive information about a certain disaster and act on it quickly. Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 This act proposes that the local governments will be responsible for their own fire authority. This means the fire body will not be funded by the central government and thus they may not receive the funding they need from the central government. As a result, they will need to ensure that they collect enough money from well-wishers since they may have financial constraints if they just depend on the local government for funding. However, international organizations can also contribute to the funding by providing some funding. Bibliographies Clay, J. K. 2010. International Rescue Operations. International Law, 21(5): 573-600 Oscar, J. 2010. International Search and Rescue. International Operations Journal: 5(30): 78-89. Stevenson, Y. 2010. Globalization and Communication. Globalization: 7(2)132-154 Zainab, V. 2010. Issues in international Search and Rescue; Law; 3:67-103 Read More