Government asked to admit stranded Afghans

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday made a formal request to the Tajik government to admit up to 10,000 displaced Afghans marooned on the islands of the Piang River on the Tajik-Afghan border, Taslimur Rahman, head of UNHCR in Tajikistan, told IRIN.

The appeal to the Tajik government to temporarily admit and protect the displaced population was made in response to a joint UN and NGO assessment completed on 1 December, which found that conditions among the families stranded on the islands had deteriorated since mid-November, Rahman said.

The displaced had been suffering “sub-human conditions for the better part of several weeks”, and had been subjected to frequent shelling from the Taliban forces positioned across from a closed Tajik border, patrolled by Russian border guards, he said. Six people had been injured from the Taliban shelling since early November, Rahman said.

“The people have no access to health facilities, there is an inadequate supply of food, the nutrition situation is bad and they are not protected against the cold,” he added.

The Tajik government faced a “very difficult situation”, and UNHCR did not expect a quick answer, Rahman told IRIN on Tuesday.

“The government has always said positive things about the situation, never negative. It has indicated previously that, if it was a must, then of course the potential for admitting the displaced would be considered. Now it needs to be discussed,” he added.

Rahman said humanitarian assistance had been hampered by the presence of armed “combatants” aligned with the United Front (also known as the Northern Alliance) among the displaced, who were predominantly women and children. “We cannot provide food directly without ensuring it goes directly to the civilians,” he said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) had requested that the UN’s Afghan operation divert some of its food stock to be distributed to vulnerable families on the islands, he added.

Rahman indicated that the will and ability of the displaced to endure the conditions had been severely stretched. An initial assessment conducted in early November revealed the majority did not want to move from their location and had no wish to seek asylum. The situation was now reversed and they were pleading to be moved to a safer location, he said.