Focus on displacement in the western region

The massive refugee camp of Maslakh, west of Afghanistan's historical western city of Herat, stands as a sharp reminder of the challenges destitute Afghans face - even after the routing of the hard line Taliban last year. More than 100,000 men, women and children struggle to survive in the squalid camps - almost half have been there for almost a year. Their lives illustrate well the problems thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) face. Gul Pari is a mother at the tender age of 16 because of the ancient custom of early marriages among Afghanistan's majority ethnic Pashtuns. She fled the western Afghan province of Badghis with her husband and mother in January, when ethnic Uzbek militias looted their livestock - the only source of income for most Afghan nomads. "We were used to moving around and now we are confined to one place," she said. Pari nurses her malnourished one-year-old baby in the camp's clinic and waits for the time they will have their nomadic caravans on the move again. Her ordeal portrays the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of Afghan nomads whose animals were killed by drought or lost while fleeing ethnic persecution in northern Afghanistan. Most of the nomads have ended up in displacement camps around the country, but some live in scattered villages receiving little assistance. In 1996 and 1997, new groups of displaced people began moving to the western borders of Afghanistan. They hoped to escape the drought and the increasingly harsh presence of the Taliban, which was at war with its Northern Alliance rival. They hoped to receive some help. People living in small mountain villages in the western provinces of Badghis, Ghowr and Faryab felt the intensity of the conditions most of all. Eking out meagre livelihoods from their small farms, these villagers tried to stay on as long as they could, selling off everything valuable, including animals, utensils and farm implements, until they were forced to take perilous journeys in search of relief and shelter. The post 11 September US-led military campaign in Afghanistan and the ensuing anarchy after the fall of the Taliban displaced yet more people. Some of the ethnic Pashtuns, the majority of displaced people in western Afghanistan, were forced to abandon their villages or give up their animals when ethnic militias loyal to local warlords started settling scores after the demise of the Pashtun dominated Taliban. Although the total number of IDPs in the region is hard to determine, some estimate that more than 100,000 might be staying in the five camps in and around Herat after more than 80,000 of them returned to their villages - mostly in the three provinces of Herat, Badghis and Ghowr - in an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) assisted return programme over the past four months. IOM now believes that the total number of displaced people in Maslakh, the largest displacement camp in western Afghanistan has halved from the estimated 118,000 registered in February. Earlier the population estimates there ranged from 200,000 to 300,000. IOM manages all the camps in Herat. Shaidayee, a smaller camp, housed more than 20,000 people in early July, while the Minaret camp in the centre of Herat city accommodated up to 400 families. With Rawzabagh officially closed, some IDPs continue to live in the Rawashan and city transit camps. Conditions in the camps are not encouraging. While most of the camps have mud houses instead of tents, the stench of human faeces permeates the air. Diarrhoea and respiratory diseases are common in the crowded environment. But Maslakh, named after the once functional slaughterhouse near the camp, has always been a symbol of Afghan suffering - long before 11 September 2001. "The overall situation has improved in the last few months, compared to the beginning of the year," Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) country manager for the western and southern regions in Afghanistan, Stefano Savi, told IRIN. "At the beginning of the year corruption, discrimination, violence and food distribution undermined security and protection of the population, especially in the Maslakh camp," he added. Raising further concerns, Savi said that although security improved after the changes to the management of the security and a decrease in the number of displaced, IDPs remained inadequately informed about the voluntary nature of the return. "They don't know much about their areas of origin, where enough assistance is not being provided," he said. Muhammad Bashir, in his mid-thirties, now lives in the Minaret camp, named after the crumbling minarets of a 14th century seminary that even today defines Herat's skyline. Bashir fled his village in the Khwaja Ghar district of the northern Takhar province in 2000, at the height of Afghanistan's decade-long civil war. "It's not the best of places, but at least we are safe here," he said. His more than 1,000 km-long journey illustrates the magnitude of displacement in the war-ravaged country. But Bashir is lucky - in some way. He has managed to find work in Herat, western Afghanistan's largest city, and one of the country's most prosperous ones, because of trade with neighbouring Iran and Turkmenistan. "It was very difficult to sneak into Pakistan so I came here," he said. The father of four lives on his meagre earnings and the assistance packages they receive. They are rather content within a low-walled mud compound similar to the one they had left behind in their village. But they now have access to some healthcare and employment. "I will return to my village only when it's safe and I find enough work to live on," he said, sharing a widespread view of who have been displaced. But with winter fast approaching, the sustainability of IDP returns and the provision of enough assistance in the areas of origin remain uncertain. According to Humanitarian Accountability Project's research findings in June, some IDPs have actually returned to the camps as a result of a lack of assistance in their areas of origin. Reiterating the need of coordinated assistance to the returnees at their areas of origin, Mark Petzoldt, a camp manager with IOM, maintained that a lot depended on the conditions in the rural areas of provinces around Herat. "They should be provided with the basic means of survival resulting in some livelihood security," he said. While many agencies have complained of a possible funding crisis, winter may bring fresh waves of displaced people into Herat. "The best we can hope is that this winter we will not have a huge influx of displaced people," Foroogh Foyouzat, a protection officer with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said.