Refugees - The forgotten tragedy

While recent media attention has shifted to UN brokered peace talks and looming UN sanctions against the ruling Taliban movement, the tragedy of the 30 year-old conflict in Afghanistan remains the plight of its refugees. Since the beginning of the war, one third of the population or some five million people have fled Afghanistan. The UN estimates some 1.2 million Afghans live within the confines of refugee camps in Pakistan today, while many more are scattered among Pakistan’s major urban centres, their exact numbers unknown. Given the magnitude and complexity of the crisis, the Afghan refugee situation is one of the worst crises of its kind in the world today. Mohammed Abdi Adar, a senior UNHCR emergency coordinator recently sent to the area to deal with the crisis, described it as tragic. “It is a tragedy that the whole Afghan saga has continued for as long as it has,” Adar told IRIN. “We are now building refugee camps on top of the foundations of previous camps we had closed down. After 20 years, we are starting off from zero again.” Beyond these astonishing figures and rhetoric, however, are the refugees themselves. Cold, destitute and tired, these individuals collectively make up what UNHCR senior programme officer Zivan Damato in Peshawar calls” one of the largest and longest refugee crisis of its kind.” Forced from their homes in Afghanistan, leaving all material possessions behind, families are obliged to live in squalid conditions, dependent on international assistance and the charity of others. For them, simple survival is their only concern. Indicative of the refugee tragedy are the camps themselves. There are 203 camps scattered around Pakistan today, 127 in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province alone. While some are better than others in terms of facilities, the camps have become for all a test of moral dignity and endurance. On a forgotten road 30 km from the city of Peshawar, located on a dusty plain dotted with mud huts, tents, and makeshift shelters is the New Shamshatoo Camp. For some 30,000 people who have fled recent fighting and the worst drought to hit the country in 30 years, New Shamshatoo has become their home. Built in 1999, the camp today houses some 6,000 families, 5,000 of whom have arrived since September. According to UNHCR figures, of the 47,000 refugees that have crossed the border in this latest influx of refugees, approximately 30,000 have found their way here. Arrival here, however, is not the end of their ordeal. Although the Pakistani authorities officially closed the border on 9 November to a further influx of refugees, people are continuing to trickle in from “uncommon routes”, compounding the problem still further. One UN official told IRIN “we have asked the government if they are going to register any new arrivals because if they are, we will have to open a new camp.” The New Shamshatoo Camp has reached capacity and UN and government officials are scrambling to find another location within the next month. “I have nothing,” said Bibi Aisha, whose husband was killed in Afghanistan, leaving her with two small children to tend to. “God knows what I will do. My registration has been cancelled, but I don’t know why.” Holding her baby in one hand and gripping her registration card in the other-her only lifeline to help-she waits for an explanation and cries when she learns the response. The Pakistani Commission of Afghan Refugees (CAR), which administers registration of new arrivals at the camp, has accused her of being a recent transfer from another camp, labelling her too “old” to qualify for further assistance. Cancelling her Individual Reference Card (IRC), she is no longer qualified for further assistance as she is no longer deemed a new arrival. She is on her own. Relief and food items are only given by UNHCR to those who are registered by CAR. Aisha has been in Pakistan for one year. Faced with a severe funding crisis, coping is perhaps the only word to define how UNHCR is managing the situation. Working with limited resources, UNHCR provides new arrivals in the camp with shelter, nonfood relief items, basic healthcare, clean water and education. According to figures provided to IRIN, to date 2,300 tents have been distributed by UNHCR. Although many families have been provided with plastic sheeting to shelter them temporarily, one UN official said some 3,000 families were still waiting for tents to shelter them from the cold. Basic amenities are far and few between. There are 50 communal toilets to service the needs of the camp’s residents, with 100 more currently under construction. Health is a major concern for UNHCR in the camp. There are three health units in the camp, providing basic rudimentary health care to the residents, including immunisation and preventive services. While officials admitted there had been cases of dysentery and eye infections there earlier, that situation has subsided. Dr. Mazhar Khan, in charge of the basic health unit at New Shamshatoo, however, told IRIN as the population of the camp increases, so too do the requirements for supplementary food, vitamins, as well as antibiotics. “We have some 350 children under the age of five in our growth management programme at the moment, 250 of whom are malnourished.” Standing outside a communal latrine shared by some 20 families in the camp, one recent arrival by the name of Lawang, (38) told IRIN he has no intention of returning to Afghanistan. “I was afraid of the war, I was living in fear,” he said. “At least I am at peace here.” The former shopkeeper from Charikar, north of Kabul, fled the country two and a half months ago and spent the first two months at the Jalozai Camp before transferring here with his wife and six children. He has received a tent and basic necessities from UNHCR. Asked how such people keep themselves warm as winter fast approaches, one UN official simply shook his head and said “I don’t know”. As UN vehicles drive slowly through the camp, it is quite common for people to tap on the windows and ask for help. All of them have stories, all of them are in need. Hope in his eyes, Abdul Ghayas is only 35, but his face says otherwise. “We arrived four days ago and we have nothing and are living outside in the cold.” Part of a group of 21 families who were forced to leave all their belongings behind at the Torkham border crossing due to restrictions there, they are from Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan province, near the front line of recent intense fighting. “I can’t go back,” Ghayas says. “We will never go back unless there is a stable government. That place is hell.” Said one frustrated UN official who wished to remain anonymous: “Everyday we see such sad things and yet we can’t do anything. Unfortunately, we are no longer the flavour of the month. The outside world is no longer interested in the problem of the Afghan refugees. It’s a rotten story and people simply aren’t interested anymore.” Less blunt, but equally pessimistic was UNHCR emergency coordinator Mohammed Abdi Adar. “I don’t see a long term solution in sight,” he said. “At the moment, we are coping because of the support we have received from the NGOs.” Although, UNHCR in Peshawar has requested US $1 million to assist this latest influx of refugees, Adar told IRIN they would need at least three times that amount in order to address these refugees needs appropriately. “There are 3,000 new families waiting in Jalozai for assistance and we simply don’t have any place for them,” he said. Meanwhile, as UN brokered peace talks between the Taliban continue and the threat of further sanctions looms, the prognosis for Afghan refugees in Pakistan looks bleaker than ever. War, poverty and hunger is continuing to force whole families to flee for their lives, perpetuating a refugee crisis that is already out of hand. Huddled together in makeshift shelters to keep themselves warm, they live a day to day existence which is difficult to fathom. Their lives personify the futility of war and while their pictures cry out for help and the world does answer, it is often with too little, too late.