An influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from North Waziristan Agency (NWA) to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the launch of the military offensive against militants would further raise their numbers from the existing 930,000 registered IDPs and Afghan refugees.
According to data available with United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) some 930,000 affected from natural disasters (floods and earthquakes) have taken refuge in KP in different IDP camps and settled areas.
Security related developments in NWA forced thousands of people to leave their homes and move to Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Dera Ismail Khan and Kohat districts of KP, Bakkar and Fatehjang in Punjab, and other parts of the country since May 22, 2014.
The displaced families were not formally registered, as the Government has not notified their areas of origin as conflict-affected. So far, the authorities have estimated over 70,000 IDPs who have left NWA in recent days after the launch of Hazb-e- Azb and the exodus from the war torn region is not over yet. Nearly 80 per cent of the displaced are women and children.
This is the third such displacement prompted by security concerns this year. In January and March 2014, an estimated 22,000 and 23,000 people respectively were displaced from NWA as a result of pending security operations. The affected population subsequently returned to their areas of origin following an improvement in the security situation. The federal government did not launch any formal request to the United Nations this time and other foreign relief agencies have also not been contacted to assist in humanitarian assistance or other support for the IDPs.
An official of UN on the condition of anonymity told Business Recorder that UN has a global agreement with member-countries that UN humanitarian assistance or emergency relief efforts required permission from the relevant government of member countries. In case of IDPs of North Waziristan, the UN did not receive any formal request.
Another relief worker working for a local NGO said that the federal government had stopped the relevant agencies from receiving assistance from foreign relief bodies, including the UN. When contacted with a spokesman of Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), said that the government has decided to meet the emergency and relief assistance from its own resources and UN agencies would only be involved in the event that the government cannot meet their needs.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) dealing with refugees and IDPs in Pakistan claimed on Friday that Pakistan is the largest refugee-hosting country in the world with currently some 1.6 million registered refugees.
The data released by the UNHCR on the World Refugees Day on Friday reveals that Afghanistan remains the world's leading source of refugees. According to figures, around 2.6 million Afghan refugees are currently living world-wide with the majority hosted by Pakistan. Thus, Pakistan is the largest protracted refugee host globally.
The KP government released Rs350 million for the new IDPs, the federal government Rs500 million and the Civil Secretariat, Fata Rs100 million.
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