Displacing the displaced: Afghan refugees told to move out of camps

District administration decides to clear Mattani and Jabba Jail camps.

PESHAWAR:

The district administration on Friday gave 48 hours to Afghan refugees to evacuate their camps located in Mattani and Jabba Jail areas of Peshawar.

The decision was taken after a meeting of Peshawar Deputy Commissioner (DC) Syed Zahirul Islam, Afghan Consul General in Peshawar Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, UNHCR officials and district administration officials, among others. The DC said the refugees would now be shifted to Garhi Chandan area.

It was decided during the meeting that Afghan refugees should voluntarily evacuate their camps by Monday morning. UNHCR officials were instructed to arrange transport for the shifting of refugees’ luggage from the camps. The SHO of Mattani police was also told to inform the refugees through loudspeakers to evacuate. All concerned authorities were further advised to reach the camps on Monday with heavy machinery to demolish the structures erected there, after the departure of refugees.



Islam told The Express Tribune, “The land where the camps are located is an army area and we gave a notice to the refugees two years ago to evacuate it.” He claimed the refugees had been applying delaying tactics since then and avoiding leaving the place.

He added UNHCR had been paying rent for the camps to the government since the last two years.

A related meeting was held in Peshawar on February 4 in which Peshawar Division Commissioner Munir Azam said it had been decided to increase the level of coordination among the administration and law enforcement agencies in the district to plug incidents of extortion and kidnapping for ransom.

Speaking at the meeting, Azam had said the movement of Afghan refugees in the provincial capital needs to be restricted and proposed strict vigilance of their camps.

The meeting also reviewed incidents of target killing of ulemas of different sects. It was decided that peace committees and surveillance systems would be activated at the neighbourhood level. Officials of law enforcement agencies were directed to closely coordinate with the public and take immediate action on their complaints.

It was also decided that security officials would be deployed in residential areas, shopping centres and public places. Azam directed all security bodies to strengthen coordination with each other and to hold security review meetings every month.

Furthermore, the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had extended the date of Afghan refugees’ repatriation up to December 31, 2015 during a meeting on August 12, 2013.The previous deadline had expired on June 30, 2013.

With the approval of the federal cabinet, it was decided to issue registration cards to Afghan refugees by National Database and Registration Authority up till December 2015.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2014.