THE HAGUE, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Netherlands continues to focus on the mission to remove all personal belongings and human remains from the Malaysian airlines crash site, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans said during a Dutch parliamentary debate on Wednesday.
"We will seize every opportunity to go back," Timmermans stated.
According to the minister, Ukraine's State Emergency Services (SES) recently removed effects from the site. SES suddenly had an opportunity to enter the disaster area and the organization asked the Netherlands to send some observers with them.
On Tuesday, personal possessions of the MH17 victims that were collected on Monday were driven to the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in two SES trucks. Four Dutch observes who were present during the collection also returned to Kharkiv. The personal belongings will undergo an initial forensic test and after this preliminary investigation, the objects will be flown to the Netherlands as soon as possible.
Local rescuers found clothing, luggage, passports, credit cards, jewelry, stuffed animals and photographs. "These are things that have emotional value for the relatives. Therefore, we are pleased that we have succeeded in collecting them," said leader of the recovery and repatriation mission Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg in a statement.
Timmermans on Wednesday emphasized that the SES search was not a thorough search, but the Ukrainians only took and secured all personal belongings they encountered. "We're not done yet," he said.
On Aug. 5, the Netherlands suspended their recovery and repatriation mission at the crash site in eastern Ukraine due to the deteriorating security conditions in the area.
During the debate in the Dutch parliament, Dutch Minister of Defence Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said that the Netherlands was ready to resume the search tomorrow, but the area had to be totally safe. "Creating more victims should not be the intention," Hennis said.
A total of 298 people died in the July 17 crash; 272 bodies have been identified so far.
