As the Pakistan government strives to repatriate displaced people who fled the severe fighting in Swat Valley, Oxfam’s Jen Corlew speaks to displaced women who desperately wish to return home but fear for their families’ safety.  

“We hear that we should return to Swat. But there are no options for us except to go and sit on our destroyed house,” said Zemit, 52, after she learned that her family home was destroyed by bombing last week.

Living with 90 family members in a temporary home, Zemit says that she misses baking bread for her family at home and desperately wishes to return. But family members who remained in the Swat valley tell her not to go back, because fresh hostilities, coupled with a volatile curfew order, have made it dangerous for them to get food and other necessities. Even as Zemit told her story to me, another asked: “Must our repatriation also be an emergency?”

Zemit is one of the estimated two million displaced people living with host communities, rather than the government-run and relief agency displacement camps.

The host communities’ generosity speaks volumes about the culture of hospitality in Pakistan. Ordinary people living in the flood path of the fleeing people have invited their friends, relatives and even complete strangers to share their homes until it is safe to return, often giving their beds to the guests and sleeping on floors. A local administrator in Marden district invited Zemit and her large family to stay in his guesthouse, where they have lived for almost three months.
Oxfam, with local partners, has been working around the clock to provide host communities like these with new latrines and water pumps, while teaching them basic hygiene to fight disease. Soon, Oxfam will also provide emergency support for up to 360,000 displaced people in host communities and in the remaining camps.

 

The Pakistan government, meanwhile, has signed a UN framework to provide safe returns for internally displaced people (IDPs). It would like to help people get back to their homes as soon as possible. But those who have fled the fighting would benefit from more official information about security and conditions in their home villages to suppress rumours and misinformation.

Tight checkpoints leading into Swat prohibited travel last week, but soon Oxfam hopes to assess the security of the area and develop the next stage of work - rebuilding homes and livelihoods.

There is no easy solution, but hopefully the more people return, the more stability will improve, curtailing another exodus from Swat Valley. But one emergency is enough - we must not create another by rushing an uneasy population back to instability and mayhem.

You can help: donate to the Pakistan Conflict Appeal

Find out more about Oxfam’s Pakistan emergency response

Tags: Conflict, pakistan, Swat valley

This entry was posted by Jen Corlew on July 28th, 2009 at 4.57 pm and is filed under General, Humanitarian, News Blog, conflict, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.