Some 100,000 survivors of the devastating earthquake in Pakistan have left camps and returned to their ruined towns villages and properties over the past month as the emergency phase of the relief operation begins to wind down, the UN refugee agency reported.
Fifty-covert camps had so far been closed, while another 99 remained open for about 55,000 people yet to go home, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
"Inevitably, there will be some vulnerable people who cannot go home immediately for various reasons," UNHCR representative in Pakistan Michael Zwack said, according to a press release issued at UN Headquarters in New York.
"Some have been orphaned, widowed or disabled; others have lost their land or come form towns like Balakot, which lies on major fault lines and has to be extremely relocated. It is important that these vulnerable people continue to be assisted until more permanent solutions are found for them," he added.
To support the trend of returns, which began after the government announced earlier this year that relief camps would start closing in March, UNHCR has provided 2.25 million dollars to support the inter-government International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to facilitate the voluntary, safe and dignified return of the displaced.
Under an agreement signed last month, UNHCR will fund a significant portion of IOMs part of the UN Action Plan to provide medical screening and transport facilities to quake survivors. The project will run until the end of August.
UNHCR is also funding the International Catholic Migration Commission to conduct vocational training programmes in some camps, targeting extremely vulnerable individuals in particular.
Through courses like sewing, embroidery, plumbing and masonry, trainees should become more self-reliant upon return to their villages.
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