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Afghanistan : Millions of Afghans still a long way from home Zhare Dasht is a camp for displaced persons near Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan. The camp was set up to "house" the displaced Afghans stuck at the Pakistan-Afghan border last year. Médecins Sans Frontières works in such camps vaccinating against infectious disease and providing emergency medical care.
Millions of Afghans are still a long way from home, driven out by the severe drought and over twenty years of war and violence. The last major exodus of Afghans took place at the end of 2001, when America and her allies overthrew the Taliban regime. Now, eighteen months on, some two million Afghans have returned from abroad, this year and last year. This has not been without its problems. The country is destitute and the drought is still taking its toll. The situation is far from stable: the central government exercises only limited control. Criminals and opponents of the present government make the roads unsafe. Warlords in various parts of the country are fighting with one another, and there are still frequent violent conflicts between Taliban fighters and the Afghan army and coalition forces. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are still displaced, i.e. they have abandoned their homes and fled to other parts of Afghanistan. Current estimates range from 500,000 to 700,000. 250,000 of them live in camps for displaced persons, mainly in the south of the country. Mr Ibrahim lives with his wife and seven children in the Zhare Dasht camp. The drought drove him and his family out seven years ago. They were nomads who used to roam with their cattle in the province of Ghazni. That all came to an end when they lost their animals as a result of the continuing drought, and with them their livelihood. At the time they moved to Kandahar, the nearest big city; they have been living in Zhare Dasht for the last six months. Mr Ibrahim comments modestly, ‘We aren’t discontent, we usually have something to eat, although it’s not easy for nine of us to make do on the rations we receive. That’s why I sent three of my sons to Kandahar, where they are trying to earn a living and two of them are studying as well. It’s just that the dust is terrible, everyone is suffering with their eyes and breathing.’
Almost everyone we talk to at the camp has a similar story to tell. Many of them have been living in camps for years, having fled from drought, ethnic violence or war at one time or another. Patans who have fled from ethnic violence in the north tell us they still don’t dare return home. Nomads like the Ibrahim family can only return to their old lives if they are able to build up their livestock again, and this is still impossible. ‘There is hardly any way for people to build lives for themselves here,’ says Bertien van Gijssel, ‘the camp is completely isolated, there is nowhere for people to go and hardly any opportunity for them to do some work from time to time, for instance, and earn some money.’ For the time being, most of them are forced to stay at Zhare Dasht. In the weeks ahead, indeed, thousands of new arrivals are expected, refugees currently living in camps just over the border in Pakistan. The Pakistan government wants all the refugees still living in the ‘waiting area’ – the no-man's land between Pakistan and Afghanistan – to leave. They can choose whether to go back to Afghanistan or to another camp in Pakistan (Mohammed Kheil, near Quetta). If they return to Afghanistan, many of them will not yet be able to go back to the areas they came from, and they will be sent to Zhare Dasht. The UNHCR – the UN refugee organization – has promised to continue providing aid to the people in Zhare Dasht at least until the end of 2004. What will happen after then is still not clear. Médecins Sans Frontières will go on exerting pressure on the UNHCR and other organizations to continue to provide aid to them as long as they have nowhere else to go – the people here are totally dependent on international aid for their survival. Médecins Sans Frontières will in any event remain in Zhare Dasht, providing basic healthcare. Médecins Sans Frontières in Kandahar not only provides the clinic in Zhare Dasht, it also supports one of the hospitals in Kandahar itself. There are currently three international aid workers and over a hundred local staff working for Médecins Sans Frontières in Kandahar. In addition to Zhare Dasht, Médecins Sans Frontières provides basic healthcare in the south of Afghanistan, at the displaced persons camps near Spin Boldak, the refugee camp in the no-man's land between Afghanistan and Pakistan (the ‘waiting area’) and the camp at Chaman (Pakistan). Bert Herberigs
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