SEVEN Jamaican police personnel who were based in Haiti as part of the peacekeeping force, are safe, officials of the government confirmed last night.

Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade said in a statement that the seven were all sound and were assisting with the rescue operations of those affected.

Reports from Haiti also say that the penitentiary has collapsed and numerous prisoners have escaped.

Meanwhile, all Governments of the Caribbean Community were last night desperately seeking ways to rush emergency aid to the earthquake-devastated country.

With vital lines of communication virtually non-existent in the wake of the nightmare of death and destruction, the Community Secretariat was collaborating with key agencies to despatch an “assessment team” today to help determine the extent and kind of emergency assistance to be provided.

The assessment team, which includes representatives of the Caribbean Disaster Management Agency, the Regional Security System (RSS) and the CARICOM Secretariat, is expected to be flown into battered Haiti by helicopter since the international airport remained closed.

While Secretary General Edwin Carrington was addressing a news conference at United Nations headquarters yesterday afternoon on the worst natural disaster in Haiti’s 206-year history as an independent nation, the Caribbean Development Bank was announcing an initial aid package of US$750,000 for the Haitian people.

The aid includes US$200,000 for immediate disaster relief for potable water, food, medicines and temporary shelter; and US$500,000 for restoration of “critical facilities and services”

Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo pledged an “immediate relief aid of US$1 million to ease the pain and sufferring of Haitian surivors of the earthquake.

— Rickey Singh contributed to this story