IOM this week delivered a consignment of 1,000 blankets to
displaced families in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar.

The delivery, coordinated through the Afghan Disaster Management
Committee in Kandahar, was part of a rapid response mechanism set
up by IOM and in response to a request from the Afghan Minister of
Refugees & Repatriation.

An estimated 80,000 people have been displaced in the southern
Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan since an upsurge
of fighting between NATO-led troops and insurgents in
July. 

Most are now living with relatives or camping in parks, schools
and on the streets of towns and villages in the region. UN agencies
including WFP, UNHCR and UNICEF are providing emergency help,
including food and emergency shelter, but risk being overwhelmed by
the growing number of people in need.

"My family, like many others, lost everything," says Toor Gul,
35, a farmer from Kandahar's Zheridasht district. He fled to
Kandahar city where he is staying with relatives because of ongoing
military operations in and around Zherdiasht. 

"The new displacement, on top of an existing caseload of over
100,000 IDPs in the south, and no apparent improvement in the
security situation means that we now have to act fast to avert a
humanitarian crisis, " says Fernando Arocena, IOM's Chief of
Mission in Afghanistan. 

"But in order to intervene effectively, to help these people and
others who may be displaced by future military operations or
natural disasters, we urgently need new international donor support
for our rapid response mechanism,” he notes.

IOM’s rapid response mechanism is designed to meet the
immediate non-food needs of displaced people. It includes the
provision of emergency shelter materials, blankets, clothing,
cooking utensils, hygiene products like soap, basic agricultural
tools and transport.

IOM has played a leading role in supporting internally placed
Afghans and helping them to return to their homes since the fall of
the Taliban in November 2001.

For further information, please contact:

Fernando Arocena

IOM Kabul

E-mail: "mailto:farocena@iomkabul.net">farocena@iomkabul.net