Displaced Pakistanis are asking: Is it really safe to return?
Friday, July 24, 2009

Government authorities have announced that areas that were the site of recent fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani military including Buner and Swat Valley -- are now clear. But the displaced are asking if it is really safe for them to return.

Church World Service continues to provide food and shelter support for families uprooted by fighting and destruction in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. Photo: Matt Hackworth/CWS

ISLAMABAD—Government authorities have announced that areas that were the site of recent fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani military -- including Buner and Swat Valley -- are now clear. But the displaced are asking if it is really safe for them to return.

"Please don’t force us to go back to hell,” Noor Bux, a displaced person, said in frustration recently about the prospect of returning to what was recently a war zone.

Even those who are returning question whether their safety can really be guaranteed. In addition to fears of Taliban presence, the displaced often called internally displaced persons or IDPs -- are concerned about the facts on the ground: homes, farm fields, schools and health facilities are destroyed; there is no natural gas or electricity; access to food, drinking water and other basic necessities is not yet available.

The questions about safety and return come as Church World Service continues its food and shelter support for IDPs in affected camps and host communities. This week, through three implementing partners, CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan distributed 1,514 food packages to  displaced persons living in host communities in four villages (Kalu Khan, Swabi, Yar Hussain and Shiv Adda) in Mardan and Swabi districts. The packages contain nine items including cooking oil, wheat flour and beans, sufficient for an average-sized family of five people for 30 days.

CWS-P/A also conducted "training for trainers" over Sphere humanitarian standards from July 13-18 for organizations responding to the IDP crisis in Pakistan. Nineteen participants from international and local non-governmental organizations attended the workshop. The event is a continuation of CWS-P/A’s active role in using and promoting quality and accountability during the recent humanitarian response.

Church World Service is serving in the current Pakistan crisis as a "focal point" for the Humanitarian Accountability Project and Sphere Project -- two international collaborations chartered to improve the accountability and quality of assistance delivered to people affected by disaster.

As HAP/Sphere focal point in the current Pakistan response, CWS is offering training and support to partners, local non-governmental organizations and members of the Action by Churches Together alliance, which are collaborating in Pakistan.

Collaboration among aid agencies is a must because of the sheer numbers of people fleeing violence. With an estimated 4 million who have fled, this is the largest displacement since Pakistan separated from India to become a nation in 1947.

Government officials are now urging people to return. Government authorities recently announced that they are providing 25,000 Pakistan rupees (about US $350) per family as part of a repatriation plan. Through the repatriation plan, displaced persons will return to selected regions over several phases a process that has already begun.

Between July 13 and July 20, a total of 46,227 individuals returned to Swat and Buner, according to the government’s Emergency Response Unit. An additional 121 individuals returned to Dir.

Why have  some people returned? A compulsory return-to-work rule has forced government employees back to their homes. For some camp residents, the cutting off of electricity in temporary camps has made it untenable to stay. Other IDPs who have opted to live in so-called "host communities" have also started returning.

But what about the hundreds of thousands not yet going back?

The UN Children’s Fund has warned that about 1 million IDPs could remain displaced until December. Further, UNICEF has speculated that some 1 million of displaced children some of whom have returned to the area with their families or are expected to in the coming weeks -- are at a risk of not starting school in September, mainly due to the widespread destruction of the school buildings in Swat and other tribal areas. According to local media reports, a total of two hundred schools were destroyed in Swat by the militants.

During an interview with CWS-P/A’s Saadia Haq, a displaced woman was full of mixed feelings. On one hand, the 30-year-old woman was happy that she and her family would be returning to their homeland. But she had serious concerns and reservations about her children’s schooling that has been disrupted due to war.

“Illiteracy and poverty are two main issues.  For ages militants have been exploiting the poor and uneducated people as a means to destabilize our country; however, now, we are told to return back," the woman told CWS. "If the government will not take quick action to rebuild the school institutions and other facilities, then our people will continue to be illiterate.

"Today it is the Taliban, tomorrow it is some other militant group that will manipulate innocent people.”

IDP Noor Bux expressed similar concerns. “Provide us the security that all Taliban elements are cleared and some of our immediate needs met, and we are ready to go back, but only promises will not make us change our minds," she told CWS's Saadia Haq earlier this week.

Whatever they decide -- whether staying in camps and host communities or returning to their homes the displaced face a singular dilemma: the daily struggle for survival. Without jobs or livelihoods and without the consistent availability of food, drinking water, education, and health services, the IDPs will continue to be dependent on government and humanitarian aid, observers said.

Neither they, nor the government nor humanitarian agencies want that to continue.

But until there are more marked improvements in day-to-day life, many IDPs will continue to refuse to return to their homes.

For the moment, many are staying put.

How to help

Church World Service is helping to provide food, shelter and medical care for displaced children and families in Pakistan.  Contributions to support Church World Service emergency response and recovery efforts may be made online, by phone (800.297.1516), or sent to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526, jdragin@gis.net

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