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| March 15, 2006 | Wednesday | Safar 14, 1427 |
Refugees seek extension in eviction deadline
PESHAWAR, March 14: Afghan refugees living in Katcha Garhi Camp have demanded that the government should extend the deadline of March 31, 2006, for their evacuation from the camp by one year to enable them to wind up their businesses.
They said they had been living in the camp for 27 years and established businesses in the city.
“Our millions of rupees are stuck in business, which will certainly take time for settlement. Therefore, the government should extend the deadline for at least one year,” said Haji Dost Mohammad, Katcha Garhi Islahi Committee chairman, at a news conference here on Tuesday.
He rejected reports that the refugees were reluctant to vacate the camp.
He said that the Wapda authorities should constitute a committee to ensure recovery from the refugees before they left for their homeland.
“From our camp those who have shifted to Afghanistan have left an amount of Rs5.2 million as unpaid Wapda dues and we made payment from our own pockets,” he remarked.
He also rejected an allegation that the refugees in Katcha Garhi Camp were collecting Rs2,500 per house to pay to the authorities so that their stay could be extended. “Actually the money we are collecting is for clearance of electricity and water bills,” he added.
The refugee representative said: “We are poor and helpless people. We can only appeal and request the government to extend our stay. We can’t press or bribe the government. If the government expels us, we would certainly have to leave the camp.”
He said that their talks with the governor of Jalalabad were also in progress and they had demanded that the Afghan government should arrange some land for establishing their camp.
He said that at present some 10,500 families were living in the camp and none of them were in a position to leave.
Asked that the government has given the option to those refugees who were reluctant to leave the country to shift to other camps in Chitral, Dir Upper and Lower, Hangu, Bannu, Kohat and DI Khan, he said shifting to other camps was tantamount to returning to Afghanistan.
About the situation in Afghanistan, he said 90 per cent of the dwellers of the camp did not have lands of their own in their homeland.
Even if some people had some land or property back home they were out of use. “Canals and water channels have dried up, roads broken and houses razed to the ground,” he said.
He also criticized the refugee ministry of the Afghan government and said that it was doing nothing for their rehabilitation.
He appealed to the Afghan government for maximum possible cooperation.
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