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United Nations press release
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Number of people displaced by fighting in north Pakistan tops 180,000
News Stories, 13 April 2012
© UNHCR/T.Irwin
Displaced men wait to be registered at Jalozai camp. They fled fighting
in the north-west between government forces and militants.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 13 (UNHCR) - The number of people displaced
by a government security operation under way in north-west Pakistan has
passed 180,000. "Significant numbers of new arrivals are approaching
UNHCR at the Jalozai camp for the internally displaced, which is
located near the city of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,"
Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the refugee agency, tolds journalists
in Geneva on Friday.
UNHCR's response is part of an inter-agency effort supporting the
government's Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). Inside
Jalozai, 72 registration desks have been established to keep pace with
the flow of new arrivals. The operation is registering about 10,000
people a day.
The vast majority of those registered - 85 per cent - choose not to
live in the Jalozai camp, opting instead to stay with friends,
relatives or in rented accommodation. Around 11,000 families, or more
than 50,000 people, have moved into Jalozai.
The PDMA will soon be opening two additional registration points, which
will also work as hubs for distributing humanitarian relief.
UNHCR has distributed more than 37,000 humanitarian relief kits, which
include items such as sleeping mats and jerry cans, while sister UN
agencies are providing assistance in the areas of mother and child
heath, child protection, water and sanitation, primary education,
distribution of food rations and vaccinations.
More than 4,000 additional tents have been erected in the area of
Jalozai that is being used to house the new arrivals. Adequate space
remains at the camp to accommodate additional families.
"Systems are also in place to identify and assist those people with
particular protection concerns," said Edwards. "A grievance and legal
desk has been established at the Jalozai registration point to
facilitate vulnerable groups who may need additional assistance due to
lost registration forms, old national identity cards, or missing
identity cards," he added.
A total of more than 650,000 people are displaced in Pakistan's Khyber
Pakkhtunkhwa province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas as a
result of security operations against militant groups.
By Tim Irwin
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