ISLAMABAD, Nov 21: The majority of over 35,000 vulnerable people still living in 47 displacement camps across northern Pakistan since the October 2005 earthquake cite “landlessness” as the main reason why they cannot return home.

This was stated in an International Organization for Migration (IOM)-supported survey carried out by the Camp Management Organisation of Azad Kashmir, the District Coordination Office of NWFP and the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Of the 6,700 families surveyed, over 50 percent said they would leave the camps if provided with land. A small number of families said they wanted to remain in the camps until infrastructure was restored in their villages. Another small group said they wanted to be permanently resettled in another location.

The survey, funded by UNOCHA, follows the return home of some 297,000 internally displaced people from 156 camps and temporary settlements since the 2005 earthquake.

IOM provided medical screening and transport to at least 76,000 of these people (16,000 families) from March to August 2006.

The second reason cited by the camp residents from Azad Kashmir for not returning to their homes was fear of being relocated from their endangered villages. But camp residents from NWFP cited fear of another earthquake.

The survey registered 5,701 families or 29,728 people in 44 camps of Azad Kashmir, 808 families or 4,321 persons in three camps in NWFP, and 219 families or 1,086 people living in government flats in Sector G-6, Islamabad.

Most families claimed that their houses were completely destroyed in the earthquake but said they had received compensation instalments and had been contacted by government to provide them the remaining compensation money.

The majority listed their profession as labourer and farmer. Many foresaw obstacles in re-establishing their livelihoods. Only a few said they still owned livestock in their places of origin.

The survey also identified the most vulnerable cases in the camps. These included people with serious medical conditions, physical disabilities, households headed by widows and children, unaccompanied elders and children separated from their parents.