Khushal and his family of four watch as
their tent, belongings and bags of food are loaded onto an IOM
truck for the short 14-kilometer trip to their home in Dub Gali.
Overlooking Muzaffarabad City from a height of 7,000ft, the village
of 30 families is only accessible via a narrow track often
threatened by landslides.

Khushal, a woodcutter, was injured in the
October 8th earthquake and migrated with his family down the
mountain to the Muslim Hands Camp in Muzaffarabad to get medical
help. He is anxious to return home where his father and other
relatives remained over the winter. His family is the first to
receive IOM help to return home from the capital of
Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

"Two weeks ago, I walked home to start
rebuilding my house. It's almost done and it's time for my family
to join me," says Khushal. "I don't know if I'll be able to make
enough money now cutting wood, but I don't want my family in the
camp anymore."

After days of rain and collapsing roads, IOM
and Muzaffarabad Camp Management Officials (CMO) are preparing
lists of people ready to return home and matching them against a
list of roads cleared for travel. In Muzaffarabad district, the
process is slow going. Almost all the roads into the Jhelum and
Neelum valleys have been either washed away or blocked due to
landslides.

But IOM has managed to help over 700 families
return home from tent villages in Batagram, Mansehra and Bagh
districts since March 20. This week it appealed to international
and private donors for US$ 4.4 million to continue return
operations through December of this year.

"The idea is to transport nearly 1,000
families in a week, but it is all subject to the weather," says Tom
Bamforth, the acting head of IOM's sub-office in Mansehra. "It was
raining again yesterday morning and even the better roads in this
region are becoming increasingly unstable."

IOM medical staff screen returnees before they
are allowed to travel. On Friday in Batagram a pregnant woman
scheduled to return home was screened out and on Saturday gave
birth. IOM will provide a medical escort for the mother and child
when they are fit to travel home with the rest of the family.

IOM is also helping people who are unable to
return home. The Dadabhoy Foundation has provided US$650,000 for
IOM to set up a transitional facility and camp (called an
"Aashiana") for widows, orphans, amputees and other vulnerable
people in Mansehra. The project will take nine months to complete,
but once finished, will provide a safe, culturally-sensitive
compound for those worst affected by the earthquake.

For more information, please contact:

Darren Boisvert

Tel. +92.300.856.0341

Email: "mailto:dboisvert@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">dboisvert@iom.int

Saleem Rehmat

Tel. +92.300.856.5967

Email: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">srehmat@iom.int