As more displaced families flee towns and villages in the Swat
Valley following the lifting of a curfew after the month-long
military operation in Swat, Buner and Dir, IOM is ramping up its
relief effort.

IOM has now dispatched 223 truckloads of relief goods including
1,094 tents, 36,468 fleece blankets, 58,727 quilts, 83,500 sleeping
mats, 45,600 jerry cans, 20,040 mosquito nets, 31,540 plastic
buckets, 14,700 kitchen sets and 28,800 kilograms of soap to
Peshawar for onward distribution to displaced people in more than
20 camps.

The two newest camps have been established in the Larama area of
Peshawar and Sugar Mill area of Charsadda to meet the influx of
internally displaced people (IDPs) fleeing the conflict zone.

But agencies including IOM are warning that without additional
donor support, relief shipments may have to end by early July.

"About 2.4 million people have been displaced from Swat, Buner
and Dir since 2nd May. Add that to 554,000 displaced from the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the total number
comes to about 3 million people urgently in need of help," says IOM
Pakistan Emergency Coordinator Brian Kelly.

Khanzada, 45, who arrived in Yar Hussain camp on 28th May with
his wife and seven children, walked through the mountains for three
days with eight other families when the army relaxed the
curfew.

"I was very relieved to get help when we got here. When we left
Behrain (in Swat) we had no food, due to the curfew and the
militants blocking our way out," he says.

Yar Hussain, which currently houses over 3,000 families in
tents, experiences temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius during
the day and is cold at night. Families queue for hours for limited
amounts of food and non-food relief items.

While the local authorities and aid agencies hope that people in
similar camps and living with host families will start returning to
Mingora, the main town of Swat Valley, now hostilities have ended,
many may remain displaced until peace and basic facilities are
restored in their home areas.

For more information please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92.3008560341

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