Swedes use mobiles for Beirut evacuation

ALMOST ALL Swedish citizens from Beirut have been evacuated after a rescue organisation that used SMS messaging.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm only runs a consulate in Beirut but managed to pull off an evacuation that was the envy of other nations.

The Toronto Star described how many Canadian families gathering in the sweltering heat were subjected to "the stress of seeing children or spouses left off the list" followed by hours of arguing.

However, the 5000 Swedes Swedish citizens had gathered in an air-conditioned hotel, they boarded buses that shuttled them to a boat.

The Swedes said that text messaging was the major tool in their success. In the last week it sent out five text messages to everyone in Lebanon who is registered with a Swedish mobile network.

The network 'Telia' told Swedes that an evacuation would be taking place. They were also messaged to get to a certain hotel at a certain time, depending upon their priority status.

Telia has roaming agreements with two operators in Lebanon and Swedish nationals would have got the message as soon as they turned on their phones. µ

L'INQ
More here