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EARTHQUAKE: Oxfam and partners aim to reach nearly 2 million affected people in Turkiye and Syria

Oxfam, together with our partners in Turkiye (Turkey) and Syria, is working to reach nearly 2 million people – 10 percent of the population affected by the quake – with aid and support so that they can rebuild their lives. 

Meryem Aslan, Oxfam Spokeswoman in Turkiye said: “People are living in cars, mosques, in tents or huddling around fires in freezing conditions. Emergency shelters are overwhelmed and over-crowded. Many people do not want to stay in the area with hundreds of thousands having been evacuated out of the region.”

In Turkiye, Oxfam KEDV is working closely with dozens of grassroot women-led organisations and cooperatives to reach up to 1.5 million people over the first three years. Our teams have already provided food, shelter, blankets and psychological support to some of most affected areas including Gaziantep, Hatay and Mardin.

“Our teams are experienced, having responded to the 1999 earthquake, but we are facing new hurdles getting aid to those who need it.  We are dealing with destroyed roads, nearly 300 aftershocks and an unprecedented scale of devastation. The sheer number of fatalities is heart-breaking. Topping the list of items needed are body bags to bury the dead. In some areas, communication is also limited which is hampering aid distribution,” added Aslan.

The earthquake has impacted over 13 million people in Turkiye – one in every six people. Over 12,000 buildings have been destroyed and many more are threatening to crumble.

Ali, a father of four from Gaziantep, told us, “We were shaking and we were so scared. I thought this was my last day. When I looked at the walls, I felt like they were moving towards me.”

He added, “It was such a bitter day. I hope we never experience this ever again.”

In Hatay, a city affected by the earthquake, only three hospitals remain standing. It is imagined that the earthquake response will take a year in Turkiye, but the after-effects will be felt for many more years to come.

In Syria, the earthquake has caused over 3500 deaths and many more injured.

Abdelkader Dabbagh, Aleppo Area Manager for Oxfam in Syria said: “The earthquake has shattered an already conflict-torn country. People do not have a roof over their heads and are stuck in freezing temperatures with no idea where they could get their next meal. Our team is working with other humanitarian organisations to get clean drinking water and hygiene packs to survivors.”

We already started providing safe drinking water to people in Aleppo. We have also supported safety checks to 220 buildings and begun fixing water taps and toilets for over 1000 of the most impacted people. Over the next six months, Oxfam aims to reach more than 300,000 survivors.

Moutaz Adham, Oxfam in Syria Country Director, said: “This is nothing new for Syrians who have lived and are still living the horrors of over twelve years of conflict. To make matters worse, we are still facing an uphill battle due to years of chronic underfunding, skyrocketing inflation, and scarce supplies of fuel.”

Oxfam calls on the international community to meet the urgent needs of those affected by the earthquake in Turkiye and Syria, and to facilitate aid delivery to both countries along with a longer-term plan to support the survivors in the recovery efforts. 

 

Notes

Oxfam KEDV was founded in 1986 and became an Oxfam affiliate in 2019. Previous to the earthquake, Oxfam KEDV was working with 78 grassroot women organisations and cooperatives in the affected areas and 600 throughout Turkey. We will work with these partners in our humanitarian response to the earthquake.

Oxfam KEDV is also a member to the National Disaster Response Platform, a network formed in 2020 representing 27 national civil CSOs, which coordinates disaster and emergency responses in Turkiye. All NGOs registered with this platform must register with the Acik Acik Association which is responsible for ensuring the transparency and accountability of NGOS.

In Syria, Oxfam has been on the scene since 2013. We get clean water to people affected by the conflict. We distributed cash and food. We also work with people to rebuild their lives including supporting farmers to start farming again through trainings and distribution of seeds and animal fodder as well as repairing irrigation systems. 

Data on the death toll in Syria was sourced from AFP via the BBC.

EARTHQUAKE: Oxfam, partners mount response in Turkey and Syria

Oxfam humanitarian teams – along with partner organisations in Turkey and Syria – are assessing the fastest, most appropriate way to help affected people in the aftermath of Monday’s devastating earthquake – the biggest in Turkey since 1938. 

Turkish authorities have launched an official search-and-rescue mission, asking specifically for mountaineers to help. An Oxfam colleague in Turkey has responded to the call as an expert amateur mountaineer.

Meryem Aslan, Oxfam spokesperson in Ankara, said: “The scale of destruction is vast. Following two big earthquakes and over 60 aftershocks, people are still in shock and fear, they don’t even have time to mourn the lost ones.” She managed to reach family and friends in affected areas by phone – thankful they were alive and well – but many buildings and home were now rubble, she said.  

Oxfam in Turkey has partnerships with around 80 women’s cooperatives in ten Turkish provinces that have been most affected by the quake. Given the scale of devastation, Oxfam is currently assessing response plans with them.

“Not only do survivors have to deal with the tragedy before them, but they also have to cope with the extreme cold. It will be impossible for survivors to sleep outside. It’s horrifying to contemplate the days ahead, given that some areas are even now in snow,” said Aslan. 

“Reaching survivors will be extremely challenging with many roads and highways damaged or blocked, and over vast distances. Even as Turkey has a lot of expertise in dealing with earthquakes, the scale of the aftermath is daunting. The death toll has already reached over 7,000 people and is growing.  The number of survivors who maybe left now with absolutely nothing is likely to be huge,” she said. 

“Typically, Oxfam and partners would look to provide protection, water and sanitation, shelter and food support and in the longer-term rehabilitation and reconstruction. We are now assessing the type of immediate and longer-term support that is needed. 

“We know that all countries affected by this awful earthquake, and the survivors of it, will need a lot of help and support – not only in the immediate short-term, but in the days and weeks and months ahead.” 

In Syria, the cities of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Idlib have been badly hit by both the earthquake and continuous, severe aftershocks that have driven people into wintery streets fearing further collapses of buildings. Dozens of buildings have been badly damaged across Aleppo and 46 are reported to have collapsed. As nightly temperatures are expected to drop to zero degrees Celsius. Shelter, food, water, fuel and medical care for those who have been injured are desperately needed.  

For Syria, this earthquake hits at a time when the humanitarian need is at its highest in the country.  Over 15 million people are in desperate need humanitarian assistance and support. 

/Ends.

Biofuel Obligation bill scrapped by Government

In reaction to the recent announcement that the Sustainable Biofuels Obligation Bill has been dropped by the Government Nicky Henry, Climate Justice Lead at Oxfam Aotearoa said:

“Oxfam is delighted that the government listened to the advice and scientific evidence that biofuels mandates are harmful as they take food and land away from people.

“This is a win for us all, but especially for the farmers, families, and communities we work with across the Pacific and beyond. We know that there are better ways we can reduce emissions and we look forward to seeing the government step up in other areas. Oxfam calls the government to urgently invest in better public transport, electric cars, and to price agriculture emissions properly.”

/ENDS

Notes:

The bill was before the Environment Select Committee who heard oral submissions about it on 1 February 2023. Citizen-powered environmental and global justice groups including Don’t Burn Our Future, Oxfam Aotearoa, 350.org, Environment and Conservation Organisations Aotearoa, Climate Justice Taranaki, the National Women’s Council and the Vegan Society opposed this bill in their submissions. Fossil fuel companies including BP, Mobil and Gull were supportive of it.

Richest 1% bag nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years

  • Super-rich outstrip their extraordinary grab of half of all new wealth in past decade.
  • Billionaire fortunes are increasing by US$2.7 billion (NZ$4.2 billion) a day even as at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages.
  • A tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise US$1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.

The richest 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth US$42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, reveals a new Oxfam report today. During the past decade, the richest 1 percent had captured around half of all new wealth.

“Survival of the Richest” is published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Elites are gathering in the Swiss ski resort as extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.

“While ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. Just two years in, this decade is shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires —a roaring ‘20s boom for the world’s richest,” said Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International.

“Taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today’s overlapping crises. It’s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the super-rich have shown that a rising tide doesn’t lift all ships —just the superyachts.”

Billionaires have seen extraordinary increases in their wealth. During the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis years since 2020, US$26 trillion (63 percent) of all new wealth was captured by the richest 1 percent, while US$16 trillion (37 percent) went to the rest of the world put together. A billionaire gained roughly US$1.7 million for every US$1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent. Billionaire fortunes have increased by US$2.7 billion a day. This comes on top of a decade of historic gains —the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled over the last ten years.

Billionaire wealth surged in 2022 with rapidly rising food and energy profits. The report shows that 95 food and energy corporations have more than doubled their profits in 2022. They made US$306 billion in windfall profits, and paid out US$257 billion (84 percent) of that to rich shareholders. The Walton dynasty, which owns half of Walmart, received US$8.5 billion over the last year. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, owner of major energy corporations, has seen this wealth soar by US$42 billion (46 percent) in 2022 alone. Excess corporate profits have driven at least half of inflation in Australia, the US and the UK.

At the same time, at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, and over 820 million people —roughly one in ten people on Earth— are going hungry. Women and girls often eat least and last, and make up nearly 60 percent of the world’s hungry population. The World Bank says we are likely seeing the biggest increase in global inequality and poverty since WW2. Entire countries are facing bankruptcy, with the poorest countries now spending four times more repaying debts to rich creditors than on healthcare. Three-quarters of the world’s governments are planning austerity-driven public sector spending cuts —including on healthcare and education— by US$7.8 trillion over the next five years.

Oxfam is calling for a systemic and wide-ranging increase in taxation of the super-rich to claw back crisis gains driven by public money and profiteering. Decades of tax cuts for the richest and corporations have fueled inequality, with the poorest people in many countries paying higher tax rates than billionaires.

Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, paid a “true tax rate” of about 3 percent between 2014 and 2018. Aber Christine, a flour vendor in Uganda, makes US$80 a month and pays a tax rate of 40 percent.

Worldwide, only four cents in every tax dollar now comes from taxes on wealth. Half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants. They will pass on a US$5 trillion tax-free treasure chest to their heirs, more than the GDP of Africa, which will drive a future generation of aristocratic elites. Rich people’s income is mostly unearned, derived from returns on their assets, yet it is taxed on average at 18 percent, just over half as much as the average top tax rate on wages and salaries.

The report shows that taxes on the wealthiest used to be much higher. Over the last forty years, governments across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas have slashed the income tax rates on the richest. At the same time, they have upped taxes on goods and services, which fall disproportionately on the poorest people and exacerbate gender inequality. In the years after WW2, the top US federal income tax rate remained above 90 percent and averaged 81 percent between 1944 and 1981. Similar levels of tax in other rich countries existed during some of the most successful years of their economic development and played a key role in expanding access to public services like education and healthcare.

“Taxing the super-rich is the strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy. We need to do this for innovation. For stronger public services. For happier and healthier societies. And to tackle the climate crisis, by investing in the solutions that counter the insane emissions of the very richest,” said Bucher.

According to new analysis by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam and the Patriotic Millionaires, an annual wealth tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise US$1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, fully fund the shortfalls on existing humanitarian appeals, deliver a 10-year plan to end hunger, support poorer countries being ravaged by climate impacts, and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for everyone living in low- and lower middle-income countries.

Oxfam is calling on governments to:

  • Introduce one-off solidarity wealth taxes and windfall taxes to end crisis profiteering.
  • Permanently increase taxes on the richest 1 percent, for example to at least 60 percent of their income from labor and capital, with higher rates for multi-millionaires and billionaires. Governments must especially raise taxes on capital gains, which are subject to lower tax rates than other forms of income.
  • Tax the wealth of the richest 1 percent at rates high enough to significantly reduce the numbers and wealth of the richest people, and redistribute these resources. This includes implementing inheritance, property and land taxes, as well as net wealth taxes.

 

Notes to editors

Download “Survival of the Richest” and the methodology document outlining how Oxfam calculated the statistics in the report.

Oxfam’s calculations are based on the most up-to-date and comprehensive data sources available. Figures on the very richest in society come from the Forbes billionaire list.

All amounts are expressed in US dollars and, where relevant, have been adjusted for inflation using the US consumer price index.

According to the World Bank, extreme poverty increased in 2020 for the first time in 25 years. At the same time, extreme wealth has risen dramatically since the pandemic began.

The report shows that while the richest 1 percent captured 54 percent of new global wealth over the past decade, this has accelerated to 63 percent in the past two years. US$42 trillion of new wealth was created between December 2019 and December 2021. US$26 trillion (63 percent) was captured by the richest 1 percent, while US$16 trillion (37 percent) went to the bottom 99 percent. According to Credit Suisse, individuals with more than US$1 million in wealth sit in the top 1 percent bracket.

The billionaire class is US$2.6 trillion richer than before the pandemic, even if billionaire fortunes slightly fell in 2022 after their record-smashing peak in 2021. The world’s richest are now seeing their wealth climb again.

In the US, the UK and Australia, studies have found that 54 percent, 59 percent and 60 percent of inflation, respectively, was driven by increased corporate profits. In Spain, the CCOO (one of the country’s largest trade unions) found that corporate profits are responsible for 83.4 percent of price increases during the first quarter of 2022.

The World Bank announced that the world has almost certainly lost its goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and that “global progress in reducing extreme poverty has grind[ed] to a halt” amid what the Bank says was likely to be the largest increase in global inequality and the largest setback in global poverty since WW2. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$2.15 per day.

Elon Musk paid a “true tax rate” of just 3.27 percent from 2014 to 2018, according to ProPublica.

The US$6.85 poverty line was used to calculate how many people (2 billion) an annual wealth tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could lift out of poverty.

Polling consistently finds that most people across countries support raising taxes on the richest. For example, the majority of people in the US, 80 percent of Indians, 85 percent of Brazilians and 69 percent of people polled across 34 countries in Africa support increasing taxes on the rich.

Oxfam’s research shows that the ultra-rich are the biggest individual contributors to the climate crisis. The richest billionaires, through their polluting investments, are emitting a million times more carbon than the average person. The wealthiest 1 percent of humanity are responsible for twice as many emissions as the poorest 50 percent and by 2030, their carbon footprints are set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.

Reaction to Government update on agriculture emissions

In reaction to today’s update on agriculture emissions, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Climate Justice Lead Nick Henry, said:

“We are frustrated that the Government is not taking climate destruction seriously enough. We should be aiming for the lowest possible climate pollution, not the lowest possible price on agricultural emissions.

“While we welcome Aotearoa New Zealand’s pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% below 2020 levels by 2030, these current proposals to price agricultural emissions are estimated to reduce methane emissions by only around 4%. It doesn’t add up.

“The experts have spoken: reducing methane pollution now, as part of reducing total carbon emissions, is essential to avoiding the climate crisis getting worse for us here in Aotearoa, for our friends and whānau in the Pacific, and around the world.

“The Government needs to support our farmers to do their fair share of reducing climate pollution by fully pricing emissions and funding a shift to regenerative low emissions agriculture.”

Oxfam Aotearoa calls for:

  • A pricing system that ensures agriculture contributes a fair share of the emission reductions needed to meet our domestic and international commitments, including the Global Methane Pledge.
  • Emissions need to be priced now, not 2025.
  • The government must scrap the 95 percent discount – the agriculture industry should be paying their fair share.
  • The government needs to invest in equipping farmers to shift production modes and adjust land use to build a flourishing, regenerative organic food and fibre sector.

Reaction to WTO delay on easing intellectual property rules on COVID tests and treatment

Responding to news that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will push back its deadline to reach a deal on easing intellectual property rules on Covid-19 tests and treatments to support the production of cheaper generic equivalents in developing countries, Max Lawson, Co-Chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance and Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, said:

“We are nearly three years into the Covid-19 pandemic. As many as seventeen million people are estimated to have died in the time that the WTO has bickered over intellectual property rules for tests and treatments. To say that more time is needed to consider the issue is utter nonsense.

“Developing countries and civil society groups had hoped that the WTO had learned from its mistakes; that the cruel injustice of vaccine apartheid would not be repeated. Even the EU has previously said it would support action on tests and treatments. But WTO members have decided to let another year pass without making any meaningful contribution to the fight against Covid-19.

“Each day of delay will push an ever-greater share of the global toll of severe illness, deaths, and economic damage onto developing countries. That should haunt the conscience of the rich country leaders and negotiators responsible for the failure to meet the deadline.”

Notes to editors

 

Copyright © 2024 Oxfam Aotearoa.

Oxfam is a worldwide development organisation that mobilises the power of people against injustice. Oxfam Aotearoa is a registered charity with the New Zealand Charities Register (registration CC24641). Donations are tax refundable.

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