Contact:

Margaret Aguirre
Director, Global Communications
International Medical Corps
Phone: 310.826.7800
Email: maguirre@InternationalMedicalCorps.org

International Medical Corps Deploying Team Into Kyrgyzstan Amid

Refugee Emergency

LOS ANGELES, CA, June 17, 2010 – International Medical Corps has deployed a team to
assess and respond to the escalating refugee emergency on the border of Kyrgyzstan and
Uzbekistan. An estimated 75,000 people from southern Kyrgyzstan have fled to
neighboring Uzbekistan, many women and children and many of them wounded. Inside
Kyrgyzstan, an estimated 300,000 have been displaced and are seeking refuge and
assistance in the border areas.

To support the ongoing humanitarian efforts, International Medical Corps is preparing to

mobilize necessary emergency response experts to provide assistance and distribute
donated supplies, and is heightening its appeal for funding. “Authorities are struggling to
deliver necessary resources to refugees, and urgently need the support of the international
community,” said Malika Mirkhanova, International Medical Corps regional coordinator
for Central Asia and the Middle East, who is currently leading the International Medical
Corps team in Uzbekistan. “Without food, clean water, sanitation and medical supplies,
an already overwhelmed population will face food insecurity, dysentery and other
waterborne illnesses.”

To date, few UN and international relief agencies have been permitted access to the
region, as the border regions remain tense. As agency staff seeking to distribute food
rations were shot at by rebel forces, security remains a critical factor in providing
necessary relief. While the official death toll stands at 179, with nearly 1,900 wounded,
relief workers estimate that thousands of additional refugees will need assistance.

Since its founding in 1984, International Medical Corps has delivered more than $1
billion in emergency relief and health care services to devastated populations in 50
countries, including during the Rwandan genocide, the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, the
Indian Ocean tsunami and the earthquake in Haiti.

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Since its inception more than 25 years ago, International Medical Corps’ mission has been consistent:
relieve the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster, and disease, by delivering vital health care
services that focus on training. This approach of helping people help themselves is critical to returning
devastated populations to self-reliance. For more information visit: www.InternationalMedicalCorps.org