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SMS helps Swedish evacuation

Sweden evacuated more than 8000 of its citizens from Lebanon after intensive hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah broke out mid-July. Mobile phones proved to be a lifeline for thousands of foreign nationals stuck in the war-torn country.

August 22, 2006

Sweden's largest evacuation effort in history was praised as a model of order - largely thanks to the use of SMS.  

 

On July 15, as the unrest in Lebanon grew by the hour, a text message was sent to everyone in the country who was registered with a Swedish mobile network - it would be the first in a series of six messages over a five-day period.

 

The message from the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs alerted Swedish nationals that an evacuation was under way. The text messages that followed provided them with much-needed logistical details and daily updates.

 

This was not the first time Sweden had used SMS in emergencies, and its experience allowed for faster deployment and more efficient implementation of the messaging operation.

 

Fredrik Jörgensen, head of the Consular Affairs unit at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, says: "SMS proved to be an efficient means of mass communication during the tsunami crisis in 2004 [so] we went on to establish close cooperation with the major mobile operators."

 

The ministry composed the Lebanon messages and forwarded them to mobile operators Telia, Telenor and Tele2. With the ability to account for all their Swedish network users in the country, the operators were able to notify subscribers with ease.    

 

Swedish citizen Suhel Gorgis was on vacation with his family in Guni, just north of Beirut, when the trouble began to escalate. "We felt that something bad was happening but we didn't realize it would happen so quickly or be quite as serious," he says.

 

After the first night of bombing, the Gorgis family received an SMS from the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs informing them an evacuation process was under way.

 

"My wife has a Swedish mobile contract," Suhel says. "My immediately reaction was a feeling of safety, that someone was watching over you, despite everything going on around us."

 

For the next three days, the family received daily messages. "They informed us what they were doing and how to get to the buses and boats. It was a very quick and effective way of communicating, which gave you hope - and all this was done through the mobile phone."  

 

Jörgensen adds: "This initiative contributed to the smooth execution of the Swedish evacuation from Lebanon, enabling the ministry to pioneer the use of modern technology in crisis situations.
 
"Our innovative use of SMS technology has impressed many other EU countries, and several decided to follow our example during the Lebanon crisis."

 

Nordic neighbor Denmark was one of the countries quick to follow Sweden's lead in the use of text messaging to track down citizens. CNN reported on July 21: "Denmark and Sweden were front-runners in the race to rescue foreigners fleeing the violence in Lebanon… while many other countries struggled to get their nationals out."

 

Meanwhile, Ericsson's Beirut office is helping volunteers from Télécoms Sans Frontières in Lebanon to provide emergency telecommunication services throughout the country. Read more about the collaboration here.