UNHCR ON THE PAKISTAN IDP CRISIS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ISLAMABAD 001143 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF PGOV PHUM PK EAID PREL PINR PTER SUBJECT: UNHCR ON THE PAKISTAN IDP CRISIS REF: A) Islamabad 1122 B) Islamabad 1120 C) Islamabad 1007 D) Islamabad 996 E) Islamabad 967 F) Islamabad 940 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: UNHCR Islamabad staff said on May 25 that UNHCR is not providing transport for returning IDPs nor is it being notified, by individual, of their return. UNHCR believes that IDPs are returning only temporarily to harvest their crops and will not return permanently until after they receive the GOP's promised 25,000 rupees per family. IDPs will not be deregistered unless they fail to show up for two consecutive (monthly) dry food distributions. The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will now will enter all IDP registrations into a database to eliminate duplicate registrations and will also issue some IDPs a special Benazir Income Support smart card that will qualify recipients for a variety of benefits. UNHCR estimates that database verification will reduce the IDP count by 20-30 percent. Official IDP camps are well run, have necessary services approaching Sphere (international disaster assistance) standards, and will soon transition from cooked food to dry food for preparation by the IDPs. HCR staff have heard no reports of visible extremism or indoctrination in the camps, but GOP intelligence is quietly picking suspects up from the camps. UNHCR will begin a mass distribution of non-food item kits to hosted IDP families on May 26. HCR staff anticipates funding needs beyond those articulated in the May UN Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan appeal as IDP planning numbers have already been exceeded and further displacement is anticipated with additional military operations. End Summary. -------------- IDP Returns -------------- ¶2. (SBU) In a meeting with Refugee Coordinator and DART team leader on May 25, UNHCR confirmed that it has not been facilitating IDP returns. UNHCR staff believe that IDPs are largely returning home temporarily in order to harvest crops and that the IDPs themselves are in the best position to determine whether it is safe to do so. IDPs are free to take their UNHCR-provided tents and non-food items kits if they return home. The NWFP administration is not providing UNHCR data on those returning, and thus the absence of returned IDPs is only evident, whether within or outside of the camps, when they don't show up for food distributions. IDPs will not be deregistered, however, unless they fail to show up for two consecutive (monthly) distributions of dry rations. ¶3. (SBU) The UNHCR Representative and staff in Islamabad posited that IDPs will not permanently return home until after they have received the GOP's promised 25,000 rupees/family, now due to be distributed before rather than after return. Families are also supposed to receive compensation for loss of family members killed in the conflict. UNHCR staff said they had no way to assess GOP estimates of returnees from outside the camps. UNHCR officials noted that staff had observed IDPs leaving Joalozai camp to return to Bajaur. UNHCR staff told Post reps that the GOP will not pay the 25,000 rupees to families outside of the Northwest Frontier Province and that UNHCR had been prohibited that day from registering IDPs in Islamabad. (Comment: The GOP has been explicit in informing international donors that it will not permit IDPs to concentrate in the major cities out of concern over potential Taliban infiltration. We believe this is a reasonable decision. End comment.) -------------- IDP Registration -------------- ¶4. (SBU) In the newly developed procedure for registration, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will now issue some IDPs a special Benazir Income Support smart card that will qualify recipients for a variety benefits. An IDP will go first to NADRA, and if he has lost his ID card, NADRA will verify his identity and provide the IDP with a document to permit issuance of a duplicate ID card. The IDP will also be issued a token and a number and then will proceed to a registration center to be registered (as before) by the Ministry of Social Welfare (working in cooperation with UNHCR). NADRA will then do the data entry of the Social Welfare registration forms. NADRA has committed to complete data entry of all existing IDP registrations by the end of May, and the database created will permit elimination of duplicate registrations. While the numbers of registered IDPs has been estimated as high as ISLAMABAD 00001143 002 OF 003 2.8 million, UNHCR assumes that this number will decrease by 20-30 percent after database verification. ¶5. (SBU) UNHCR staff said that the current number of IDP camps is actually 23 (22 and the Palai transit center) and that the GOP's temporary use of higher numbers recently reflected an inclusion of educational buildings being used temporarily to house IDPs. Of these camps, 4-5 are run by ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent, and the rest are the province of UNHCR. In camps where UNHCR is plays a role, its level of involvement differs from camp to camp. In some camps, UNHCR provides the NWFP provincial authority with some support and supplies the non-food items. In others (like Jalozai, Kacha Ghari 1 and 2, Sheikh Shehzad, Jalala, Sheikh Yassin, and Yar Hussain),UNHCR plays the more direct role of camp manager. -------------- Camp Management -------------- ¶6. (SBU) UNHCR Representative Guenet Guebre-Christos, a UNHCR veteran of refugee and refugee-like situations, is, like Post, of the opinion that the new IDP camps are, by any comparison, well-run given that they were established less than three weeks ago. They are approaching Sphere standards for disaster response. Guebre-Christos noted that there is some confusion as to the Pakistan government lines of authority in the camps as Lt. General Nadeem's newly formed Emergency Response Unit (ERU) has designated new government camp managers. It is still unclear whether these new managers are working with the experienced Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (usually the government's entity for camp management) or whether they are working directly for the ERU. It is also unclear, according to Guebre-Christos, whether the ERU has the capacity for camp administration, but it deserves to be given a chance. Guebre-Christos opined that the ERU seemed to be looking more to ensure security through its camp appointments than to provide humanitarian relief management. UNHCR has a Pakistani field officer consistently present in each camp and also has international staff, including a community service officer, a protection officer and a gender advisor, who travel between the camps. ¶7. (SBU) As previously noted, there is some concern about water contamination in the camps, and an investigation is underway. There has been no outbreak of serious, water-related disease, however. UNHCR and implementing partners are aware that further hygiene education is required. Water, latrines, and common shaded areas have been provided in all the camps, although more may be needed in some, and HCR is providing "greenhouse nets" to provide additional shade to the individual tents. Guebre-Christos noted that dry food rations will soon be provided in the camps to permit the transition away from cooked food. Because the IDPs prefer individual family food preparation in lieu of communal kitchens, HCR will have to provide firewood and bricks in the near term and reforestation (probably through cash for work) in the mid-term. The GOP expects WFP to provide dry rations and expects UNHCR to provide firewood because the NGO previously providing firewood to IDP camps has run out of funding. -------------- Extremism -------------- ¶8. (SBU) According to UNHCR staff, GOP intelligence officials (NFI) have been quietly picking up people in the camps. UNHCR has not heard of any extremist preaching or indoctrination, however. Guebre-Christos noted that there was an opportunity for the government to play a role in providing the camp populations with some redirection, if not reeducation, whether through discussion , theater, or music, for example, to compensate for the limited and extreme perspectives they are likely to have encountered in their home villages. -------------- Hosted IDP Populations -------------- ¶9. (SBU) UNHCR staff said that the IDPs outside of the camps are still underserved. While HCR has provided shelter and non-food item kits in small defined areas, it has otherwise been stockpiling to permit mass distributions in more IDP-populated areas where it would ISLAMABAD 00001143 003 OF 003 be very unwise and disruptive to do a partial distribution. UNHCR has provided 4,000 tents to Habitat for distribution and intends to provide 10,000 in total. (Note: UNHCR staff described good cooperation with UN Habitat and cited the organization as possibly the best source of information on hosted IDPs.) With regard to non-food item (NFI) kits, UNHCR is targeting a population of 250,000 families and has distributed thus far to 56,000. Assistant Representative Kilian Kleinschmidt anticipates that with further military operations, an additional 150,000 families will require assistance. UNHCR is planning to be the "backbone" of NFI distribution as no other humanitarian assistance partner is large enough to do so. With 80,000 kits, procured locally, in the pipeline and another 30,000 funded by USAID/OFDA through the International Organization for Migration (IOM),UNHCR is planning a major distribution beginning May 26. UNHCR will look to other partners and NGOs to supplement the NFI kits with hygiene kits, clothing items, etc. -------------- Funding Status -------------- ¶10. (SBU) UNHCR staff reported that based on previously received funding and the initial pledges it has received toward meeting its USD 80 million funding gap announced in the appeal, UNHCR Pakistan now has an increased spending authority of USD 50 million. The funding gap remains at approximately USD 44 million. The planning figures in the appeal are already below current realities, however, and do not account for the possibly up to a million more people who might result from military operations in Waziristan, Orakzei and elsewhere. Additional funding needs might be approximately USD 150 million. UNHCR estimates the cost of NFI kits at USD 170 without a tent. HCR is currently procuring local quilts instead of blankets and is moving toward procurement of all-weather tents that are more expensive (USD 270 vice USD 170) but will better serve IDPs through summer, monsoons and winter, whether in displacement or upon initial return. ¶11. (SBU) UNHCR staff also noted that statistics are beginning to show that the more accurate average family size for IDPs is 6.5 instead of 6. UNHCR has been warned by the government to be ready for new outflows of IDPs and fears that if it is not prepared (and funded) to establish new camps, the gap will be filled by others, and the risk of extremism is much higher in spontaneous camps. Currently there is expansion capacity in Yar Hussain and in Shah Mansour. (Note: It has now been agreed that ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent, and not UNHCR, will manage the extension of the Shah Mansour camp currently run by ICRC and its partner.) While there is also capacity in Jalozai, UNHCR is not eager to expand this problematic camp where disruptions have occurred. HCR staff said that additional camp sites might be available in Haripour, and Mansehra, possibly at Jabba an old earthquake camp in Mansehra, and that HCR would have to look into Punjab for Waziristan IDPs. PATTERSON