Icelanders Implore Government To Assist Faroe Islands

A brutal storm raged over the Faroe Islands over the Christmas holidays, doing untold damage. In response, one group of Icelanders is imploring the Icelandic government to send aid.

In a post made by the Facebook group “Faeroe Islanders and Icelanders Are Cousins”, they point out the devastating winds and rain that slammed the tiny islands over Christmas.

Although no one was killed or seriously injured, these storms have done considerable damage to the infrastructure.

“Followers of our page took the opportunity to put forward the idea that we Icelanders lend our neighbours a helping hand by dealing with the damage the severe weather has done to them,” they write in part. “As we put this wish forward, we implore the Icelandic government to submit funding for the Faroese people to repair the damage done over the Christmas holidays.”

This group has long been a friend of the Faroese, as the name attests. In 2014, they rose to the defense of the Faroe Islands when a ship, whose engine was badly in need of repair as it departed from Greenland for home, called upon Icelandic authorities to dock and conduct repairs. However, the crew were informed they could dock in Reykjavík Harbour, but would not be permitted to disembark, nor would they receive oil, food or even drinking water.

This prompted the group to issue a public apology to the Faroe Islands, and to criticise the Icelandic government for their apathy.

“The Faroese have always stood behind us in times of need, such as after the avalanches at Súðavík and Flateyri,” Rakel Sigurgeirsdóttir, a co-founder of the group, told Vísir. “When the economic collapse happened, the Faroese were again very generous. We are appalled by how these people have been treated, and we don’t want the Faroese to come away from this with the idea that we are ungrateful and greedy, which is the impression this kind of treatment gives.”