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Earthquake camps’ closure planned in March

By Umer Farooq

ISLAMABAD: The federal government is carrying out a survey of relief camps to seek the opinion of earthquake victims regarding their return to their hometowns, as the government is planning to initiate the process of closing the camps in March.

An official of the Federal Relief Commission told Daily Times that the survey was almost complete and “we are waiting for feedback”. In one of its latest publications on earthquake relief operations, United Nations relief coordination officials said the Pakistani government would encourage the returns and begin the camps’ closure possibly in mid-March.

The government will encourage internally displaced persons (IPDs) to return to their place of origin before the deadline of March 31. However, the official said there would be no forced expulsion from the camps set up in the quake-affected areas of Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province.

“The idea of closing the camps in earthquake-affected areas was discussed in one of the meetings and General Farooq Ahmed Khan strongly reacted to the idea of forced expulsion,” said the official. “Next month when the weather clears, people will start moving out of the camps to their places of origin,” the official added.

He said that according to the plan, the second tranche of the compensation package would be distributed among earthquake victims once they reach their hometowns. Officials of the UN coordinator for humanitarian assistance said the process of return would start in March. The officials said the registration exercise in the relief camps was complete and its results would also serve as a guide to people’s intentions to return.

There are currently 26 planned camps being run by the army with assistance from the United Nations and other international donor agencies. Some 118 unplanned camps run by national and international NGOs have cropped up over the last four months. In total, the camps host around 200,000 earthquake victims.

There were apprehensions about the number of victims in these camps swelling during winter due to bad weather in areas above the snowline (5,000 feet and above).

The UN officials involved in relief operations said though there was no substantial movement of people from upper areas to lower areas, some camps are still receiving IDPs, especially in Bagh and Battagram.

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