JALOZAI, Feb 12: United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has completed the relocation of Afghan refugees from the “notorious” Jalozai makeshift camp on Tuesday and shifted its last remaining 45,000 destitute inmates to nine new sites in tribal areas along border with Afghanistan.
Senior officials of the UNHCR saw off the final batch of the displaced Afghans comprising over 800 persons at Jalozai, some 40 kilometres east of Peshawar. The displaced families will be camped at Bar Kali camp in tribal area of Bajaur Agency.
The administration has deployed a platoon of Frontier Constabulary at the site to avoid conflict between the land owners.
The UNHCR and Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR) in collaboration with other donor agencies had started the relocation of displaced families in November 2001. These Afghans have been shifted to Shalman camp, Kyhber Agency, Basu, Azgharo, Bagzai, Kurram Agency, Kotkai and Bar Kali, Bajaur Agency.
The UNHCR deputy representative to Pakistan Ms Eva Demant, who arrived at the site to witness the camp’s closing ceremony, said in her brief remarks, “the camp inhabitants have been living in a miserable condition and we may call it a humanitarian nightmare. The Jalozai camp presented a tragic proof of world neglect of Afghan refugees.”
A 64-year-old widow, Lal Bibi, was the last inmate of the Jalozai camp, whose tent was dismantled in the presence of the UNHCR officials and journalists. Lal Bibi was reluctant to leave the camp. “I have no stamina to suffer more,” lamented a widow.
About 12,000 displaced Afghan families had started pouring into Jalozai camp who fled their country due to civil war and prolonged drought. The unfortunate inhabitants of the Jalozai camp, who belonged mostly to northern Afghanistan, had constructed crude shelters of plastic, canvas and other scraps in bottom-land.
The Pakistan government refused to register the displaced persons that led to severe controversies with the UNHCR. Islamabad placed ban on the entry of Afghans and asked the UNHCR to start screening of refugees in the camp and the economic refugees would be sent back to their country.
The screening programme was stopped after Sept 11 terrorist attack on America.
According to information, half of the population of the “notorious” Jalozai camp disappeared before the relocation operation could be started. Haji Dost Mohammad, head of the Jalozai camp, told Dawn, “roughly 5,000 families have been shifted to the newly-established camps, and the rest have mixed up with the local population.”