IRIN
PAKISTAN: Lack of land hinders quake displaced
21 November 2006


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

ISLAMABAD, 21 November (IRIN) - More than 50 percent of those displaced 
by last year's South Asian earthquake and now living in makeshift 
settlements across northern Pakistan have cited landlessness as the main 
obstacle to their return, according to the findings of a joint 
humanitarian survey released on Tuesday.

"Of the 6,700 families surveyed in 47 tented camps for quake displaced, 
over 50 percent said that they would leave the camps if provided with 
land," Saleem Rehmat, a spokesman for the International Organization for 
Migration (IOM), said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"A small number of families said that they wanted to remain in the camps 
until infrastructure was restored in their villages. Another small group 
said that they wanted to be permanently resettled in another location," 
the IOM spokesman added.

More than 75,000 people died and another 3.5 million were rendered 
homeless when a devastating earthquake ripped through parts of northern 
Pakistan on 8 October last year. Nearly 2 million quake survivors were 
forced to live in tents and makeshift shelters throughout last winter, 
battling the harsh weather.

Currently, around 35,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) continue to 
live in tented camps both in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

The survey was carried out between mid-August and early November by the 
IOM together with various government agencies to find out why quake 
victims were failing to return home.

A regional breakdown showed that some 30,000 people were registered in 
44 camps of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, about 4,300 in three camps 
in NWFP, and nearly 1,100 were living in Islamabad.

The majority of the displaced people listed their profession as 
'labourer,' followed by 'farmer'. "Many foresaw obstacles in 
re-establishing their livelihoods. Only a few said that they still owned 
livestock in their places of origin," the IOM's Rehmat said.

Meanwhile, humanitarian aid agencies have accelerated efforts to upgrade 
existing shelters in tented camps as winter in the region closes in.

"At the moment, we are busy strengthening existing structures in three 
camps in Muzaffarbad [capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir]," 
Margaret Vikki, head of the camp management team of the Norwegian 
Refugee Council (NRC), told IRIN on Tuesday.

Next week, the winterisation campaign is due to be extended to more 
camps. "We plan to finish upgrading all the 44 makeshift settlements in 
Muzaffarabad by mid-December. But it depends how early we get the 
deliveries of iron sheets and bamboos," the NRC official added.

The IOM survey also identified the most vulnerable cases in the camps. 
"These included people with serious medical conditions, physical 
disabilities, households headed by widows and children, unaccompanied 
elders and children separated from their parents," the IOM spokesman 
said.


IRIN-Asia
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Email: IrinAsia@IRINnews.org


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