Refugees return

The clearing of extremists/militants from the North Waziristan tribal agency created a refugee crisis. Thousands of those that fled went across the border into Afghanistan, where they have endured considerable privation and misery ever since. The security environment in their homelands is now considered sufficiently secure for it to be safe for them to return home. To this end the political administration has finalised the protocols and logistics for their repatriation. These Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDP’s) are coming home via a shelter camp and over 200 families have now arrived. It is likely that around 2,000 families will eventually return with the process continuing until 26^th January.

Repatriation is the easy part of the job, getting people back to their lands and homes is more complex. It must firstly be remembered that these were populations that had the very people that the army has had to fight and eject living among them for many years. At least some of the TDP’s were sympathetic to those that were the cause of their own misery. Their views are unlikely to have changed since they were summarily ejected from their homes. Secondly and just as importantly their homes and bazaars have in many instances been damaged or destroyed, their flocks dead or dispersed. They have little reason to feel anything but animus to the administration that brought this upon them. Few hearts or minds will have been won. As has been reported from a range of sources the unseen psychological damage in terms of the TDP’s acute sense of a loss of dignity does not appear to have been addressed in any meaningful way.

Welcome as the return has to be, these are damaged people returning often to damaged or destroyed homes and workplaces. Any resentment they may feel is entirely understandable. The process of return has to be accompanied by rehabilitation — and throwing relatively small sums of money at them in the hope of this somehow mitigating the effects of their uprooting is naive in the extreme. The failure to create a countervailing narrative to that of the extremists is a dangerous omission. We watch with interest and some concern.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2017.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.