Organisers to clear South Korean Scout jamboree site early as typhoon looms | South Korea

All participants at this year’s World Scout Jamboree in South Korea are to leave the event’s campsite before the scheduled end date of 12 August due to an incoming typhoon that is expected to make landfall over the Korean peninsula in the coming days.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) said it had received confirmation from the South Korean government that, due to the expected impact of Typhoon Khanun, an early departure will be planned for all participants at the global youth event in the south-western county of Buan.

Choi Chang-haeng, the secretary general of the jamboree’s organising committee, said organisers had secured more than 340 evacuation venues, including community centres and gyms, in regions near Buan. Local governments and cities across the country, including Incheon, North Gyeongsang Province, and Gyeongju, were convening emergency meetings to support the young scouts with accommodation and experience programmes.

It is unclear what format the remaining jamboree activities, if any, will take.

The WOSM said: “We urgently call on the government to expedite the plan for departure and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries.”

The event, which attracted 43,000 young scouts from 158 countries, has been plagued by issues since it started on Wednesday, including a heatwave that resulted in hundreds of participants being treated for heat-related ailments, and reports of poor sanitation, waterlogged conditions caused by earlier heavy rains, rotten food, and swarms of mosquitoes and flies.

Long before the events began, critics and local politicians raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to the site, a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat, made on land reclaimed from sea.

The British and American contingents announced on Friday they would be leaving the site.

On Monday, Matt Hyde, the UK Scouts chief executive, told the BBC that poor sanitation and insufficient medical services had led to the 4,500-strong UK contingent being moved from the campsite.

“We feel let down by the organisers because we repeatedly raised some of these concerns before we went, and during, and we were promised things were going to be put in place and they weren’t,” Hyde said. “If you can imagine [toilets] that are being used by thousands and thousands of people that are not being cleared with the regularity you would expect, you can imagine the sort of things that people were seeing.”

Hyde said relocating 4,500 people had cost the Scout Association more than £1m, which had come from its reserves, and the cost would affect the organisation’s activities for up to five years.

Earlier on Monday, it was reported that Australia was also withdrawing its scouts and volunteers, due to the typhoon forecast. Singapore announced its contingent had chosen alternative accommodation, but said it was still participating in the jamboree.

Conditions on the ground had been improving before Monday’s statement by the WOSM. The South Korean ministry of gender equality, which is in charge of the event, cited a recent survey that found only 4% of participants were extremely dissatisfied with their experiences so far.

Scout members will reportedly leave the campsite sequentially, starting on Tuesday. Police were also preparing transportation and safety measures ahead of the early withdrawal.

Associated Press contributed to this report