BANK red tape is preventing millions of pounds donated by Britons reaching the earthquake victims in South Asia who need it, the head of the Disasters Emergency Committee said yesterday.

Brendan Gormley, chief executive of the group co-ordinating fundraising for 13 aid agencies, told The Times that vital days were being wasted as charities were subjected to security checks concerning money transfers to accounts abroad.

Precautions introduced by the US Government after the 2001 attacks to cut terrorists’ funding had since had a knock-on effect on money transfers to the Muslim world, Mr Gormley said.

“Since September 11, transfers to Muslim countries have been especially problematic,” he said. “It is slowing down the relief effort . . . Charities are being classed in the same category as terrorists.”

The delays have prompted members of several organisations to carry money to Pakistan themselves.

Imam Moulana Moorthaza Kassim-Ziee, of Luton Central Mosque, said: “We have raised about £78,000 so far. Our target is £100,000 and we have decided that two people from the congregation and two members of the committee will take that money over themselves. They will be going at their own expense.”

Sajjad Hussain, chairman of the Pakistani Community Centre in Longside, Manchester, urged people to transfer money directly to friends and families.

“People need help now,” Mr Hussain said. “We are not waiting. Sending aid through NGOs and the Government can take weeks or even months. We ask that people send it direct to friends and family in Pakistan through a money exchange.

“Often, donors are not told that the money has not gone through, and that adds to the problem. Banks in Washington or Geneva sit on the money and earn interest while the people who need help remain without supplies or shelter.”

A London-based charity complained yesterday that four days had been wasted negotiating a transfer with a British bank.

On Monday, the Kashmir International Relief Fund tried to transfer, via Barclays bank, £30,000 of the £130,000 it has raised so far to its account in Pakistan for aid workers in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

Ishfaq Ahmed, the charity’s chief executive, said: “Our office has still not received the money.

“We have doctors flying out to Pakistan and the idea was for teams on the ground to be buying equipment for them, which they could pick up straight away and get to the villages. People are dying, and we have money sitting there waiting in accounts. I am completely disgusted.”

He said that he had also tried to transfer money via Western Union, but its rules required aid workers to drive 2½ hours from the relief site to its offices to show identification documents, which Mr Ahmed said was unacceptable.

Aid workers in Rawalpindi sent an e-mail to Mr Ahmed yesterday. It read: “Still without blankets and tents. No help from anywhere. Here there is no money and we can not do any more work.

“The situation is very bad. We do not have funds to buy blankets, quilts etc. People are without food, shelter, blankets and medicines . . . most people will die as the winter has started and it is very cold.”

A spokeswoman for Barclays said: “I completely understand the need to get the money there, but we are unable to just press a button and sort it out straight away. We don’t have any branches in Pakistan. We transferred the money on Wednesday to Habib Bank and it should be there now.”

The DEC said yesterday that the public’s response in the first 24 hours of the Asia Quake Appeal had been “brilliant” and dismissed the suggestion that people were suffering from compassion fatigue. It said that £5 million had been pledged since telephone lines opened.

The Treasury, meanwhile, has contacted the DEC and other charities to inform them that new rules will make it easier and cheaper for them to claim Gift Aid on telephone donations.

The reform, which does away with the requirement for charities to write to every donor using Gift Aid, was not due to be introduced until November 1, but a Treasury spokesman said earthquake appeals would be allowed to benefit if they submitted their Gift Aid claims after that date.

THE AFTERMATH

• The UN said 2 million homeless face a fierce Himalayan winter. Snow started to fall in Kashmir
• More than 35,000 have died and tens of thousands are injured
• A 5.6 aftershock was centered 135 kilometres (85 miles) north of Islamabad yesterday
• An Indian plane delivered aid to Pakistan
• A woman suicide bomber blew up an army convoy, killing five, in Indian Kashmir

  HOW TO HELP

• Donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee website at www.dec.org.uk or phone 0870-6060 900

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