Pakistan's Growing migration to urban areas worries ICRC

PESHAWAR: Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of Peshawar sub-delegation, Antje Ruckstuhl on Thursday said rural population was moving to urban areas in search of better jobs and services.

“But millions of this urban population are confronted with increasing violence, poverty, pollution and increased vulnerability. Today 50 per cent of the world population is living in urban areas and estimated one billion people live in slums or other substandard housings,” she said here while addressing an event held in connection with May 8 celebrations of Red Cross/Red Crescent Day. These millions of people, she said, need the urgent assistance and so the focus needs to be on what remains to be done.

“In Pakistan, the ICRC has been active since the time of partition,” she said and added that its delegates visited more than 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war held in India after the war of separation and are now visiting Pakistani nationals detained at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram in Afghanistan. “Such visits provide the opportunity to monitor conditions of detention and to pass Red Cross messages between detainees and their families,” she said.

Antje Ruckstuhl added that besides the devastating earthquake of 2005 and flash floods, countless Pakistanis have to live in atmosphere of hostilities. “Unfortunately, civilians are facing an ever greater risk of armed violence, including in major urban areas. The deteriorating security situation has impeded the access of humanitarian workers a great deal,” she said.

Nonetheless, she said, it was reassuring to see the ICRC and Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reaching out to the most vulnerable in many areas where hostilities have occurred, mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). She said recently displaced population of Orakzai Agency was provided with food, shelter, other relief goods and medical care.

Besides, she said, a regular presence has also been maintained in the hardest-hit areas of Malakand Division where fighting had forced millions of people to flee last year. She informed the participants of the meeting that since its opening in February 2009, the ICRC Surgical Hospital for weapon-wounded had performed over 4,500 operations for victims of bomb blasts, gun shots, mine injuries and shelling.

PRCS head for the province, Dr Sher Muhammad Khan, also spoke on the occasion. Later, a declamation contest on growing trend of urbanisation was held. Students from various departments of the University of Peshawar highlighted merits and demerits of urbanisation.