ReliefWeb

Counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations and violent clashes between non-state armed groups continue to lead to major, rapid movements of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Pakistan’s volatile north-west. Within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Khyber and Kurram agencies are currently the worst-affected areas. More than 415,000 people were newly displaced in 2012, and at least 131,000 more have fled their homes since mid-March this year (OCHA, March 2013, p.2; OCHA, 6 June 2013). There are now 1.1 million IDPs registered as displaced by conflict in the north-west, and many more are unregistered in the region and elsewhere ( IDMC , 31 May 2011, p.1; UNHCR, 7 May 2013).

An estimated five million people have been displaced by conflict, sectarian violence and wide-spread human rights abuses in the north-west as a whole since 2004. Disaster-induced displacement has been even more extensive. Around 15 million people were displaced across the country by three years of monsoon flooding between 2010 and 2012, and millions more by earthquakes and drought over the years ( IDMC , January 2012, p.1; IDMC , May 2013, p.18).

Conflict-related displacement reached a peak in 2009, when three million people were displaced in the north-west, 2.3 million of them from the Malakand region of Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KP) province. By the end of 2010, the number of IDPs had fallen to around one million, but returns have since been offset by new displacements. Today, Pakistan faces a renewed displacement crisis fuelled by massive new forced population movements in FATA, the current focus of conflict in the region.

Displacement leads to a range of serious protection challenges, including threats to life and freedom of movement. Those living in camps are generally considered most in need of assistance. That said, two thirds of IDPs outside camps live below the poverty line and do not have adequate access to food, housing and basic services. National and international responses have been substantial, but they have not consistently been rights-based. In the vast majority of cases, only IDPs who meet government criteria for registration are eligible for food assistance. Efforts towards improving the registration system have been made recently, but serious concerns persist that the provision of humanitarian aid is neither impartial nor targeted at the most vulnerable. Major reform is still required to bring the criteria for registration into line with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and to deliver assistance to those most in need, including protracted and urban IDPs.

The government has favoured IDPs’ swift return, and large scale voluntary repatriation has taken place along-side fresh displacement. Since 2008, more than three million people displaced by conflict have returned to parts of KP and FATA. Nearly all IDPs wish to return eventually, but factors including persistent insecurity, damaged housing and the inconsistent provision of compensation and return packages mean that tens of thousands of families are still unable to do so. Returns to FATA slowed dramatically in 2012, and that trend looks set to continue.

Urgent measures are required to address protracted displacement and create the conditions in which Pakistan’s growing number of IDPs are able to achieve durable solutions. To this end, the government should register and assist vulnerable IDPs displaced for prolonged periods and introduce policies that support local integration. Integrated, community-based programmes that benefit host populations as well as the displaced are needed to ensure local integration in urban areas is a viable option. The endorsement of an early recovery assistance framework (ERAF) for FATA in March 2013 is a welcome step forward and could help create the conditions for sustainable returns. Action is now needed by the government and humanitarian and development actors to ensure its effective implementation, while also guaranteeing that any new returns are safe, informed and voluntary.

At the same time, the government must take urgent steps to reduce bureaucratic constraints on humanitarian organisations and expedite their access to the displaced. All parties should respect the basic principles of international humanitarian law and attacks on aid workers should cease immediately. The impact of the withdrawal of NATO and US troops from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2014 on the north-west’s displacement crisis is uncertain, but whatever its effect sufficient international humanitarian funding for Pakistan’s IDPs must be guaranteed in 2013 and beyond.