The majority of more than 35,000 vulnerable people still living in
47 displacement camps across northern Pakistan since the October
2005 earthquake cite “landlessness” as the main reason
why they cannot  return home.



The statistic was revealed in an IOM-supported survey carried out
by the Camp Management Organization of Pakistan-administered
Kashmir (PAK), the District Coordination Office of NWFP and the
Capital Development Authority of Islamabad between mid August and
early November 2006.



Of the 6,700 families surveyed, over 50 percent said that they
would leave the camps if provided with land. A small number of
families said that they wanted to remain in the camps until
infrastructure was restored in their villages. Another small group
said that they wanted to be permanently resettled in another
location.



The survey, funded by UNOCHA, follows the return home of some
297,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from 156 camps and
temporary settlements since the October 2005 earthquake.



IOM provided medical screening and transport to at least 76,000 of
these people (16,000 families) from March through August 2006.



The second reason cited by camp residents from PAK for not
returning to their homes was fear of ‘being relocated from
endangered villages.’ But camp residents from NWFP cited
‘fear of another earthquake.’



The survey registered 5,701 families or 29,728 people in 44 camps
of PAK, 808 families or 4321 persons in three camps in NWFP, and
219 families or 1086 people living in government flats in Sector
G-6, Islamabad.



Most families claimed that their houses were completely destroyed
in the earthquake, but said that they had received compensation
instalments and had been contacted by government to provide them
the remaining compensation money.



The majority listed their profession as ‘labourer,’
followed by ‘farmer.’ Many foresaw obstacles in
re-establishing their livelihoods. Only a few said that they still
owned livestock in their places of origin.



The survey also identified the most vulnerable cases in the camps.
These included people with serious medical conditions, physical
disabilities, households headed by widows and children,
unaccompanied elders and children separated from their parents.

For more information, please contact

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Pakistan

Tel: +92 300 856 5967

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int" target="" title="">srehmat@iom.int