UK rescue team in Japan defeated by red tape

UK rescue workers say they had to leave quake-hit Japan because they could not secure the necessary paperwork from the British embassy in Tokyo. The International Rescue Corps said they were not given permission to work in Japan because it would have made the embassy legally responsible for them. A spokesman for the team said it was "gut-wrenching" to be stopped from helping by "your own country".

David Cameron said they did not have the "correct documentation". The prime minister said the official rescue team sent from the UK had already started work in Japan. "There was an extra, independent rescue team that didn't have the correct documentation and so they did encounter some problems," he added. "We are doing everything we can to make sure that they can get access."



Willie McMartin, operations director at Scotland-based International Rescue Corps (IRC), said the team had no choice but to leave. "The team has had excellent help from the Japanese embassy in London and the authorities in Tokyo but it broke down when they couldn't get the relevant paperwork from the British embassy in Tokyo," he said.

"This was the 32nd world disaster we have been to and we've only had problems twice before with host governments in China and Afghanistan. We have never encountered the position where the British embassy, our own country, came up with a show-stopper." The volunteers, who were going to focus on humanitarian rather than search and rescue work, arrived in Tokyo on Monday night and caught a flight home at 1300 local time on Wednesday. They donated their food and medical supplies to the Salvation Army working in the country.

With news video.