Why Nepal Restricted Foreign Rescue Teams Despite Massive Missing Persons

[Anchor]

Despite a massive number of missing people, Nepalese authorities are limiting assistance from other countries to specialized fields such as DNA identification. They intend to keep search and rescue operations centered around their own personnel.

Reporter Min Gyeongho investigated the reasons behind this decision.

[Reporter]

Deep and narrow gorges, and land turned into swamps following massive floods.

The Nepalese government points to these conditions as a key reason for not permitting foreign rescue teams to conduct searches.

Only helicopters can access the disaster-affected areas, which is not an easy task even for Nepalese pilots who are familiar with the terrain, and it could also put rescue workers at risk.

[Sisir Kanal / Nepalese Foreign Minister: Even Nepalese helicopters have to line up and wait for their turn to pass through narrow gorges.]

The experience from the 2015 Nepal earthquake, which caused more than 30,000 casualties, also appears to have been taken into consideration.

At that time, aircraft from various countries crowded the airport, taking three days for rescue teams to land, and out of the 61 arriving rescue teams, only 16 met UN standards.

As a result, specialized technical support is being prioritized over direct search and rescue.

[Sisir Kanal / Nepalese Foreign Minister: (We have requested support from neighboring countries) to further strengthen search and rescue capabilities, such as clearing access routes to tunnels where people are trapped or technologies to locate survivors in disaster areas.]

Some interpretations suggest reluctance to allow rescue teams from South Korea, the United States, and Japan to enter due to the proximity to the Tibet region controlled by China, but Nepalese authorities have denied that relations with China were a factor.

The orientation of the new government, which took office in March of this year following its victory in the general election with the backing of the youth amid the so-called Nepalese Gen Z Revolution, is also being discussed.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah, a former prominent rapper, emphasizes reform and self-reliance.

Nepalese authorities also stated, "Nepal accounts for less than 0.01% of total greenhouse gas emissions, yet it has become one of the biggest victims of climate change," requesting international assistance for the preservation of the Himalayan ecosystem and other efforts.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.