MARDAN: The 1.9 million Pakistanis uprooted by anti-Taliban offensives must be not be pushed into returning home before their safety and security is assured, the UN humanitarian chief said Wednesday.
John Holmes, United Nations emergency relief coordinator, said during a four-day visit to Pakistan that the displaced were at a ‘critical turning point,’ as the military says swathes of the northwest are safe for return.
‘(We are) trying to make sure people are not pushed to go home too quickly,’ said Holmes, as he visited displaced people in the northwest town of Mardan.
‘Of course we have no wish for people to stay in camps or in host communities longer than necessary because it puts such a huge strain on everyone and on infrastructure. These are the balances we’re trying to strike.’
Security forces launched an offensive on Taliban fighters in late April in three northwest districts after the rebels thrust south towards Islamabad, sparking a huge exodus as people rushed to escape ground and air assaults.
Now officials say the districts are almost cleared of Taliban rebels, although the military have reported outbreaks of fresh fighting in Swat valley.
‘We are at a critical turning point when people may start to go home and may not,’ Holmes told reporters.
‘If they start to go home, it’s one situation. That becomes very difficult for most people and we have some very big problems to address in the future.
‘The conditions need to be right — that is the security needs to be right, the basic services need to be there,’ he added.
Electricity and water supplies were cut off in the main urban hubs during the fighting, while hospitals closed their doors.
Most of the 1.9 million displaced — which includes about 500,000 who fled an offensive last year in a separate northwest region — are packed into relatives’ homes, while others are crammed into hot and dusty refugee camps.
UN officials said that about 3,700 schools in the North West Frontier Province were currently occupied by people seeking shelter from fighting — a concern with the new school term beginning on September 1.
Aid officials also say they will struggle to provide for people going back as donors have only come forward with about one third of the 543 million dollars requested to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
‘Somehow this IDP (internally displaced persons) issue has been relatively neglected,’ said Holmes, who arrived on Tuesday on his first official visit to Pakistan, and will stay until Saturday.
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