IRIN
PAKISTAN: Return package extended to unregistered quake IDPs
10 May 2006


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United 
Nations]

MANSEHRA, 10 May (IRIN) - Extending its return assistance programme for 
survivors of last October's South Asian earthquake, the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) has started to provide free transport 
to displaced families living with relatives or in small unplanned camps.

Previously, the programme had covered only those survivors living in 
officially organised relief camps.

"The number of IDPs [internally displaced persons] in host families and 
scattered camps is proving to be greater than anticipated. With no data 
available, the process of finding and later verifying such families 
before providing them with transport is also proving to be a real 
challenge," said Mary Giudice, head of IOM's sub-office in Mansehra, in 
North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"It is exhaustive work because we have to literally go to each house to 
verify the status of IDPs. Through their identity cards, we identify 
those who come from remote villages to live with their relatives and who 
require assistance," she explained.

More than 80,000 people were killed and another 3.5 million rendered 
homeless after a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake ripped through 
northern Pakistan in early October last year. Over 2 million quake 
survivors were left with no option but to live in flimsy tents in relief 
camps or crude shelters patched together from their ruined homes.

Close to 300,000 quake survivors were living in tented camps over the 
winter months in more than 600 settlements across the quake zone, 
including in excess of 150 officially organised settlements with a 
cluster of 50 or more tents. Of these, 61 camps have been recently 
closed, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees 
(UNHCR), the lead agency for camp management.

"Initial estimates suggested approximately 120,000 unregistered IDPs 
were living in camps of less than 50 tents and with relatives in 
quake-affected areas of North West Frontier Province," Salim Rehmat, an 
IOM spokesman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said.

However, "many of them have already gone back to their homes on their 
own after the government announced that quake-affected people would get 
the second installment of the house reconstruction grant only in their 
places of origin," he noted.

According to the IOM, to date the agency has helped more than 9,000 
quake-affected families wishing to leave temporary settlements to return 
home by providing them with medical screening and transportation along 
with a one-month food ration.

In NWFP, the relief authorities have set aside three camps, including 
two in Mansehra district and one in Battagram district, for residual 
groups of vulnerable people. In Pakistani-administered Kashmir, at least 
two camps located in Muzaffarabad district have been designated for this 
purpose.

"At present, our [UNHCR] technical teams are busy reorganising the 
residual camps in Mansehra district to improve the facilities and 
transfer the vulnerable population from other camps," Babar Baloch, a 
UNHCR spokesman said in Islamabad.


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