the exisiting camps can barely hold the 10-20% of refugees that they host if locals can no longer afford helping the situation will be absolutely dire.
DAWN.COM | Provinces | IDPs have pushed their hosts ?to the limit?
ISLAMABAD: People fleeing fighting in Pakistan are putting a huge burden on communities where they are sheltering but the United Nations can only help a fraction of them because it doesn’t have enough funds, a UN official said.
Aid agencies have issued urgent, multi-million dollar calls for aid for people displaced by the fighting. Nearly 2 million people have fled the fighting in Malakand division and other areas, top UN humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan Martin Mogwanja told a news conference on Thursday.
While some of the internally displaced persons have moved into relief camps set up by aid agencies and the government, most are staying with friends or relatives in so-called host communities.
‘This is a massive, massive influx of people to be suddenly hosted within a space of three to four weeks,’ Mr Mogwanja said.
He said in some places scores of people were crammed into a couple of rooms.
Thousands of tons of food and other supplies have been distributed but the strain on communities was still immense, he added.
‘The healthcare services, the public water services, the sanitation services, the schools services, have all been pushed to their absolute limit and some have surpassed their limits,’ he said.
The United Nations appealed last month for $543 million to help the displaced but only $166 million, or 31 per cent of that, has materialised, he said.
‘Our resources are limited and we are reaching only a fraction of those whom we would like to reach among the host communities and this is a great concern,’ he said.
Mr Mogwanja declined to say when he thought the displaced might be able to go home, saying the government and the United Nations had drawn up a set of conditions which needed to be met, including security and the restoration of utilities and services.
‘The government is very clear that it wants to achieve these conditions as soon as possible and they are working very hard to do so,’ he said.
‘But as of now, we have not come across a situation where all conditions are complete but we’re hopeful that these conditions can be met in the near future,’ he said.
The military is planning an offensive against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan leader Baitullah Mehsud in his stronghold in South Waziristan.
Already, thousands of people have left the region, residents say, and a full offensive is likely to spark another exodus into a region where UN staff cannot go because of security worries.
Two foreign UN workers were killed in a suicide attack on a hotel in Peshawar on June 9, but Mr Mogwanja said that would not stop the aid effort. – Reuters