Collateral damage: Registration duplication feared as Bara IDPs return

Many displaced persons opted not to go back due to escalating law and order.

PESHAWAR:

Hundreds of families who have been ‘temporarily displaced’ from the Bara plains of Khyber Agency are being ‘enlisted’ for the third time since military action Khyber-1 was launched last week. Nearly 66,168 families have been registered from previous displacements and there is hardly any need for a fresh registration, insiders familiar with the matter have revealed.

A senior official associated with monitoring demographic changes and influx of displaced people from the tribal areas in Peshawar informed The Express Tribune that so far a total of 782 families had returned to Jalozai camp.



Out of these families, 216 have opted to stay in camps while another 566 families have either moved in with their relatives or are living in rented spaces.

“Most of the population is hiding their earlier registration and wants to be registered as fresh IDPs to obtain additional benefits,” the official said.

Official neglect?

With displacement almost becoming a routine matter in Bara sub-division, a large number of displaced persons had opted not to go back owing to the escalating law and order situation in the area. However, they have not been treated with dignity and respect.

“We are being treated in a discriminatory manner,” Jabbar Khan, a displaced person who reached Orakzai Agency after a long journey, told The Express Tribune. He complained the government had devised a strategy for other areas of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) but consistently ignored the needs of the displaced persons from Bara.

The FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) has made no arrangements for those who have been displaced by the military offensive, he added. “We are being served boiled rice by the FDMA,” said Khan.

The displaced population continues to face numerous challenges.

“The money for transportation is not enough for us to travel to the camps as we are not being provided the exact amount promised to us,” Khan added.



A FDMA spokesperson denied the charges, saying the displaced persons were served food and provided transport facilities and polio vaccinations. He added those who were not previously registered were also ‘listed’ on arrival.

“Almost 99% of displaced persons who arrived have been previously registered in 2009 and 2011,” he said. Some of the families had returned back to the area after there was temporary cessation of violence, the official added.

Rising numbers

Statistics available with The Express Tribune from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and FDMA reveal there are 4,685 families from Khyber Agency who are living at the Jalozai camp. A majority of families who live outside the camp are living in Peshawar. The city is currently hosting 71,308 displaced families from Kurram Agency and North Waziristan.

With the absence of any new data related to the population of Khyber, the government is unsure as to how many more people might move out of the agency.

According to the senior official, the government has predominantly relied on the census of 1998. This has proved to be a “flawed practice” as it is difficult to ascertain how the displaced population can be helped, said the official.

“For the world, these are just statistics, for us these are people whose needs have to be managed and accommodated. There are bound to be mistakes but we are fully committed to helping them through these difficult times.”

As the clashes in Khyber Agency intensify, the displaced population in Jalozai camp is expected to increase once again. At this critical stage, the priority of the security officials is to maintain law and order within the city before the situation spirals out of control.

“We have now begun a door-to-door registration scheme in Peshawar. Changing demographics will lead to new forms of militant or criminal activity,” said the official.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2014.