Pakistan: Displaced families face harsh winter in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

2015-01-05

2 January, 2015

Afeel Khan and his family fled their home in mid-November. They lived in the town of Bara, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) near the border with Afghanistan. But intense fighting between militants and Government forces made life there unsafe.

Pakistan_pic2.jpg
November 2014, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan: Afeel Khan and his children wait to be registered at the Jazolai camp for people displaced by conflict in north-west Pakistan.

Afeel, his wife and their five children travelled to the Jalozai camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province. Jalozai is home to about 23,000 people, including some who have been there for many years due to near-continuous military operations in the region over the past decade. Like all new arrivals, Afeel and his family were registered by staff from the FATA Disaster Management Authority.

“I don’t mind the paperwork, I know it’s important,” said Afeel. “But my young children are getting sick because of the cold.”

Already planning to leave

More than 76,000 families have been displaced from Khyber Agency since military operations started there in late October 2014. Most of the displaced families are sheltering with friends or relatives or renting accommodation. So far, only 120 Bara families have taken up camp alongside Afeel at the Jalozai site.

Life in the camp isn’t easy, and Afeel is already planning to leave.

“I plan to stay in the camp for a while before I can find work in the city so I can move my family out of the camp,” he said. “Living in a tent in this weather is very difficult with young children.”

Chest infections on the rise

As winter sets in, the families at Jalozai need quilts, blankets, warm clothes and shawls. Most left everything behind when they fled Bara, and they have already spent their limited financial resources on warm clothes and firewood.

Dr. Kheraza Amjad has been assisting the displaced people in Jalozai camp for the past two years. On an average day, her small clinic receives about 150 patients. She estimates that about half of her patients are presenting with chest infections.

"Winter is a hard time for the families living in Jalozai. The weather can get quite harsh and the facilities are neither sufficient nor appropriate,” says Dr. Amjad. “A majority of the children and adults have chest infections, influenza and other illnesses triggered due to lack of proper care, [a lack of] warm water, warm clothes, and due to closed cooking areas.”

Aid groups have started distributing winterized supplies to people across KP. But these distributions have not started yet in Jalozai.

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs