PESHAWAR, Feb 12 The United Nations has expressed concern over the massive displacement from the violence-wracked Swat district and has asked the provincial government to facilitate its access to the area to extend humanitarian assistance to people.

“We want to provide life-saving humanitarian aid to help the civilian population of Swat. The population in Swat needs food, clean water, shelter, medicines and restoration of basic services immediately,” a UN mission told the home department on Thursday.

The UN has already launched an appeal for assistance to the internally displaced people.

The mission, including representatives of the WHO, UNHCR, Unicef and other UN organs, visited Peshawar to ask the government to make arrangements for access of its staffers to Swat to assist the people suffering due to the military operation and the destruction caused by militants.

On this occasion, home department officials briefed the UN team about the security scenario and advised it to stay away from Swat due to the deteriorating law and order situation.

The mission said that at present there were 1,347 people in the nine camps established in schools for internally displaced persons in Swat and 2,200 people resided with their relatives.

These people, it said, desperately needed food, shelter and medicines.

In such a situation, only the government could facilitate the access of the UN to the conflict-ridden Swat.

The situation if not handled properly at this stage could snowball into major humanitarian crisis, the mission said. It added that last week two trucks loaded with essential medicines remained stuck outside Mingora because the Taliban were not permitting their entry in the city.

Officials of the home department told the mission that at the moment the situation was not ripe for the UN to visit Swat and assured that the provincial government would soon be able to allow humanitarian organisations to begin relief work there.

People have lost their families, their homes, belongings and livelihoods, and schools, health units and businesses had been destroyed, the mission said, adding specific concerns existed for chronically ill people and those inflicted with life threatening injuries from the conflict. It asked for free movement of humanitarian workers and transportation of goods to the area.

The officials told the UN representatives that the provincial government was creating a capacity for 3,000 more families in the Jallozai camp, which at present was hosting 6,000 families.

They said the government was negotiating with the owner of an adjacent plot to the Jallozai camp to erect more tents and subsequently shift there the displaced people from Swat.

Additionally, the mission was told, there was a capacity for 300 families in the Kacha Garhi-2 camp in Peshawar, which could also be offered to the Swat IDPs.

The mission pointed out that the ICRC had sought permission from the government and the Taliban and was already working in Swat, requesting measures to strengthen its scope of activities there.

It also pointed out that 400 families from Swat had set up tents near Takht Bhai in the Mardan district and called for their shifting to the Jallozai camp.

The ICRC had been providing foodstuff to 3,800 families in Swat, it said, adding the Médecins Sans Frontières had suspended its activities there after the deaths of its two workers and kidnapping of four others.

In such circumstances, the mission said, only the Saidu Group of Hospitals (SGH) was in working condition and the rest of health units had either been closed or were not functioning appropriately.

The mission requested the government to relocate the staff of other health units in Swat to the IDPs` camps and the SGH to strengthen its capacity.

WHO representatives, on this occasion, said they provided medicines in Swat and also offered fuel to run ambulances for transporting critically wounded people to hospitals.