The forgotten lives of IDPs

Residents escaping the latest round of fighting in Khyber Agency in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) say they did not even have time to bury their dead before leaving their homes in the Tirah valley.

They are the latest of hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homes in the tribal belt close to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan over the last five years of Pakistani military operations.

According to a report by Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) of United Nations, conflict is not the only cause of displacement; natural disasters have also played a role, creating what humanitarians call a “complex emergency”.

However, despite the existence of camps set up for internally displaced persons (IDPs) where the government and humanitarian organisations provide assistance, most choose to flee elsewhere, creating a challenge for those wanting to help these vulnerable communities.

Over 75,000 people live in three established IDP camps (such as Jalozai, a half hour drive from Peshawar) which houses families in tents or makeshift structures, and provide food aid, medical facilities and drinking water. They also serve as a central registration point for families arriving from areas hit by conflict or natural disaster.

Large though these camps are, they only account for 10 percent of the three-quarters of a million IDPs, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Humanitarian agencies are increasingly being pushed to take care of those who prefer to live elsewhere; often in Peshawar and elsewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

NGOs and the UN working in Pakistan carry out so-called IDP vulnerability assessment and profiling (IVAP) surveys to gather information on where off-camp IDPs are, and the type of support they need, from shelter and food to healthcare and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) assistance.

They also gather information about what IDPs say they will need on returning to their homes, generally in FATA – with housing, security and agriculture of particular concern to families.

IVAP findings are then passed to humanitarian partners in an effort to ensure that assistance is targeted where there is the greatest need.

The European Commission-funded IVAP project recommends that aid agencies prioritize assistance for off-camp families, 82 percent of whom have to pay rent and live in difficult, cramped conditions.

Providing humanitarian services outside of the camp environment can be challenging.

IDPs have direct access to facilities at camps, but tribal customs, perceptions of camp life and a preference to stay with relatives and friends, mean a large number of IDPs choose to live outside the camps, making it more difficult for the authorities and humanitarian organizations to keep track of them and offer assistance.

“Those providing aid, and the IDPs receiving it, would be better served if distribution was decentralised,” said Sobat Khan Afridi, chairman of the Tehreek-e-Mutasireen Khyber Agency, an NGO set up by different political parties to assist IDPs.

“It is easier for larger organisations, especially international NGOs, to operate from the camp as it is easier to manage for them. The problem is that it is still difficult for all the families not living at the camp to reach Jalozai and get aid,” said Afridi.

Efforts are made to keep in touch with families who choose to live among relatives or rent property. The government uses mobile phone numbers to register families living off-camp, and officials try to reach families that are not registered in this way during monthly food distributions at designated points, he added.