Return package extended to unregistered quake IDPs

Extending its return assistance programme for survivors of last October’s South Asian earthquake, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has started to provide free transport to displaced families living with relatives or in small unplanned camps. Previously, the programme had covered only those survivors living in officially organised relief camps. “The number of IDPs [internally displaced persons] in host families and scattered camps is proving to be greater than anticipated. With no data available, the process of finding and later verifying such families before providing them with transport is also proving to be a real challenge,” said Mary Giudice, head of IOM’s sub-office in Mansehra, in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). “It is exhaustive work because we have to literally go to each house to verify the status of IDPs. Through their identity cards, we identify those who come from remote villages to live with their relatives and who require assistance,” she explained. More than 80,000 people were killed and another 3.5 million rendered homeless after a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake ripped through northern Pakistan in early October last year. Over 2 million quake survivors were left with no option but to live in flimsy tents in relief camps or crude shelters patched together from their ruined homes. Close to 300,000 quake survivors were living in tented camps over the winter months in more than 600 settlements across the quake zone, including in excess of 150 officially organised settlements with a cluster of 50 or more tents. Of these, 61 camps have been recently closed, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the lead agency for camp management. “Initial estimates suggested approximately 120,000 unregistered IDPs were living in camps of less than 50 tents and with relatives in quake-affected areas of North West Frontier Province,” Salim Rehmat, an IOM spokesman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said. However, “many of them have already gone back to their homes on their own after the government announced that quake-affected people would get the second installment of the house reconstruction grant only in their places of origin,” he noted. According to the IOM, to date the agency has helped more than 9,000 quake-affected families wishing to leave temporary settlements to return home by providing them with medical screening and transportation along with a one-month food ration. In NWFP, the relief authorities have set aside three camps, including two in Mansehra district and one in Battagram district, for residual groups of vulnerable people. In Pakistani-administered Kashmir, at least two camps located in Muzaffarabad district have been designated for this purpose. “At present, our [UNHCR] technical teams are busy reorganising the residual camps in Mansehra district to improve the facilities and transfer the vulnerable population from other camps,” Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman said in Islamabad.