In any war, the most vulnerable members of the community are usually women, children, older people, and people with disability. Surviving bombs and bullets, they continue to face challenges even after the troops are gone.

When the United States declared “war on terror” in 2001 and ousted the Taliban regime, six million citizens left Afghanistan, hopeful with assurances of “liberation.” Five years later, they are still in refugee camps in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, the economic reconstruction failing to materialise as the United States shifted its focus to Iraq in 2002. Three million Afghans continue to live in Pakistan while around 900,000 are in Iran. While armed troops are no longer their problem, they now face another deadly threat in the form of a disease: tuberculosis.

Afghan women and children battle TB

Women comprise 63% of Afghan refugees with TB in Pakistan, according to Akmal Naveed, director of the Association for Community Development (ACD). In the past three years alone, over 10,000 Afghans in refugee camps were diagnosed with TB. Patients were given free treatment in Pakistan by the ACD, but when they moved back to Afghanistan, a number of them failed to get case-transfer cards that would entitled them to receive continued treatment. With an incomplete treatment course, according to ACD, patients end up with multi-drug resistant TB, which could eventually lead to death.

Mujahida Bibi, an Afghan widow, is one of countless women who lost their children to TB; her three sons succumbed to the illness when she was not able to ensure their continued treatment. Hoping to save her fourth child, she is determined to stay put in her mud-hut in Pakistan until the treatment is over.

While women and children are most at risk because of their physical weakness and the overcrowding in refugee camps, the prospect of TB patients in their home country is even bleaker. Despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics showing that around 70,000 to 80,000 new TB cases are detected annually in Afghanistan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) slashed ACD funding. Now, only 60% of the patients will be treated by the organisation, with the rest having to discontinue the treatment, or else find resources for themselves.

No choice

Returning refugees also face other problems. With no enough housing for all returnees, hundreds continue to live in tents, even in the Afghan capital. A child, a woman, and an elderly man were the first to succumb to the sub-zero temperature, but reports of other deaths continue to filter into the camps. “(We) have no money to build (houses) on the land (allotted to us),” says Syed Agha, a refugee spokesperson. “(We) have spent huge amounts constructing houses in the refugee camps (in Pakistan).”

With the freezing cold, and insufficient aid coming to them, a few returnees stole back into Pakistan, only to face a hostile situation. They are blamed for a worsening security situation in the area. Violent crimes against Afghan refugees have risen, something that the refugees deplore. “If security was restored in Kabul, we will not stay in Pakistan,” they say.

The promised aid

Where is the US$13 billion pledged to help Afghan refugees? According to the government in Kabul, only about US$3 billion has been earmarked for resettlement, while the rest is to be spent on security and rebuilding the armed forces.

Some non-governmental organisations are sceptical about the nature of this aid. The Global Research.ca, argues that “raw figures (of pledges by the international community) become easy propaganda tools used for deceiving the masses.” Only a small portion, it says, is outright grant; the rest are treated as loans which will further plunge the country into debt.

An unimaginable catastrophe

The same scepticism haunts the aid pledged to Pakistani refugees after a devastating earthquake hit Pakistan October 8 last year. The quake killed around 87,000 and displaced 3.5 million more. But out of the US$5.8 billion dollars pledged, only US$ 1.9 billion are grants, while the rest are loans. The grants also come with “strict conditions on where this money eventually ends up,” according to Global Research.ca.

As in the case of Afghan refugees, the women survivors in Pakistan are among those most affected. According to a camp resident in Kashmir, “there are no arrangements to take care of women.” For cultural reasons, women are reluctant to talk to male physicians, and female doctors are in short supply.

Three quarters of the 1,400 people diagnosed with pneumonia were children. There are around 1.6 to 2.2 million children affected by the quake, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Many have also contracted bronchitis, pneumonia, and other acute respiratory infections. Children also suffered head injuries and multiple limb fractures. UNICEF estimates that as a result, approximately “20,000 children will have physical impairments.”

Save the Children-US calls for more international aid to “avoid a catastrophe to children of unimaginable proportions.” Aside from physical trauma and their vulnerability to trafficking, the longer-lasting psychological impact must also be addressed. They must be provided with “a sense of safety…positive experiences through recreation, space to relax, and a routine like schooling,” according to an Islamabad-based organisation.

In response to urgent calls, some eight “child-friendly spaces” have been set up by World Vision and Save the Children in major camps, providing the quake survivors with an emotionally safe place which allow them to act like children for a change.

The future of survivors in Pakistan, as those in Afghanistan, looks bleak. But, NGOs continue to hope for the future, seeing the children already able to laugh and play. Save the Children-UK president Katharine Williamson says, “It is incredible to see how resilient and resourceful children can be…and how families restructure their lives so quickly.”

Sources:
Asadi, M. 21 November 2005. “Recycling human misery: Aid and the Pakistan earthquake.” Posted by Global Research.ca at <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20AS20051121&articleId=1301>.

Baloch, Babar. 13 January 2006. “UNCHR lends woman’s touch to Pakistan relief camps” posted by the UNCHR at <http://www.unchr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=43c7a9a44>.

Church World Service. 28 October 2005. “Many unaccompanied children arriving at new tent village for quake survivors, report CWS.” Posted by the Church World Service at <http://www.churchworldservice.org/news/archives/2005/10/360.html>.

Ebrahim, Zofeen. 09 November 2005. “Pakistan: Focus shifts to quake children.” Posted by the Inter Press Service News Agency at <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30934>.

“US signs US$200m quake rebuilding grant” posted on 22 January 2006 at <http://www.geo.tv/quake/english.asp>.

Wahdat, Ilyas and Hashimzada, Janullah. 12 January 2006. “Afghanistan: Harsh winter claims lives in makeshift camps.” Posted by the Inter Press Service News Agency at <http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=31748>.

Yusufzai, Ashfaq. 18 January 2006. “After bullets and bombs, TB gets Afghans.” Posted by the Inter Press Service News Agency at <http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=31727>.

______. 20 January 2006. “Pakistan: Tuberculosis sweeps through Afghan refugee camps.” Posted by the Inter Press Service News Agency at <http://www.aegis.org/todaysnews/du.asp#115>.