PAKISTAN: Aid workers bracing for possible new IDP influx

ISLAMABAD, 26 January 2010 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are preparing for an influx of a possible further 150,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northwestern Pakistan in 2010, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other agencies.

According to a 21 December OCHA map, as many as 150,000 new IDPs could pour out of the tribal areas lying along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

"As military operations continue in various areas of the northwest, there could well be new displacements in 2010 from the tribal areas, though we do not expect anything on the scale we saw from the Malakand area in May 2009,"Ariane Rummery, a spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency, explained.

The summer of 2009 saw the displacement of 2.3 million people at the peak of the fighting. While most of these IDPs have returned, a large number remain in camps or with host families.

"Around 1.1 million individuals are still displaced. Around 113,500 of these are still living in camps and 97,000 are at Jalozai [in Nowshera]," says Billi Bierling, OCHA public information officer.

The rest are staying with host families - 360,000 of them in Mardan District and 200,000 in Tank District in NWFP.

"We expect the IDPs from South Waziristan to start returning home by March," Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmad, chairman of the Pakistan Army's Special Support Group, told the media recently. He said the "displacement crisis will be over soon."

However, some of those still displaced say they are unable to return. "Our home was badly damaged. It can be repaired but I spent all our savings on supporting my family after we left home in June last year and have none left over to re-build," said Azamullah Jan, from Swat, who is still based at the Jalala Camp in Mardan.

"Times are constantly getting harder for us as there is less and less help from the government or international agencies," he said, describing winter at the camp as "especially bleak" because "the tents offer no protection against the cold and it is freezing at night."

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News compliments: IRINnews.org
Photo compliments: Reuters