Conditions at displacement camps improve

Conditions for almost 11,000 Afghans at the Mile-46 and Mahkaki displacement camps in southwestern Afghanistan - both administered by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) - have improved, aid workers told IRIN on Wednesday. "The situation has certainly improved since December," the head of mission for the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Medecins sans frontieres (MSF), Bruno Jochum, said from the Iranian capital, Tehran. "There are no more unregistered Afghans around the camp, and we consider the situation to be quite stabilised." Whereas food assistance had always been satisfactory for the registered population of the camps, he noted: "As there are no longer 2,000 unregistered people outside the camp, things are now substantially better." Jochum's evaluation comes in stark contrast to the situation in early December when thousands of Afghans in search of food and shelter encamped outside the two sites. The IRCS was initially reluctant to register more people for assistance, fearing that doing so could lead to a further influx of needy people. However, it later agreed to register them, thereby allowing them greater access to assistance. Fearing an additional influx of Afghans after 11 September, Tehran closed its 900-km border with Afghanistan, opting to provide assistance at a series of displacement camps just inside Afghan territory, administered by the IRCS. Mile-46 and Mahkaki are the only such camps to have been established under this policy. According to MSF, which has the strongest presence on the ground, there are currently 5,200 people living in some 1,000 tents at the Mahkaki facility and 5,400 in a similar number of tents at Mile-46. "While there has been no increase in the number of tents at either camp, there are quite a few men from Kandahar joining their families now," Jochum said. He noted, however, that although security had also stabilised, the fact that more men had joined their families had raised some tension in the camps. "We remain attentive to the security situation." Commenting on the camps, Mohammad Nouri, the spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Tehran, told IRIN: "Living conditions for these internally displaced persons inside have visibly improved." He explained the change by saying that the presence on the ground of NGOs, including MSF, Ockenden International and others, had served substantially to improve living conditions for residents there. But while things have settled down, sanitation and hygiene in both camps remain a concern. "Our efforts are now to enhance water distribution in Mile-46 and focus on temporary latrines in Mahkaki," Jochum said. Whereas the medical situation in the camps had stabilised and the prevalence of diarrhea had decreased, he noted that there was still a great problem with scabies at Mile-46, affecting mostly children. "It's now a priority for our medical teams," he said. Earlier, aid workers had been particularly concerned for the health of residents in the winter months, following the deaths of six children resulting from exposure at Mile-46 in December. MSF currently maintains a medical dispensary in each camp, and has a team of international and local medical staff on the ground, including four doctors, five nurses, two mid-wives, one logistics officer and one public health specialist. Since 15 December, MSF has also had a permanent presence in the southern Afghan border town of Zaranj, supporting the general hospital there with a focus on patient activities, including drug supplies, female consultancy and obstetrics, as well as to provide technical support for the hospital. The hospital is the only one in the southern Afghan province of Nimruz. Recent Iranian efforts had greatly facilitated MSF's cross-border operations, Jochum said, noting that serious medical cases at Zaranj were now being transferred to an Iranian hospital across the border, with costs paid by UNHCR. According to the UN, there are currently 2.3 million Afghan refugees in Iran, making it one of the largest regional hosts alongside Pakistan.