Pressure builds in 'powderkeg' Kabul as refugees return home - The Guardian
Racing against the setting sun to wind up the day’s labour, Shukour takes a few steps back and surveys his construction site. As the dust from the drilling settles back on the 50 square metres of rock that will become the foundations of his new house in Kabul, he stops work and talks about the home he fled as an eight-year-old.
“Our Panjshir is as beautiful as India’s Kashmir,” he says, framed against a rash of grey matchbox huts vying for very available inch before the hillside falls steeply away. “It was God’s own valley until the reign of fire.”
Shukour’s home province of Panjshir – deep in the Hindu Kush mountains – bore the brunt of vicious fighting between the mujahideen and the Soviet army in the 1980s. More than six million Afghans fled the war; Sukhour’s family was among the 1.5 million who ended up in neighbouring Pakistan, many of them unregistered refugees.
The Geneva Accords announced the formal end of the conflict in 1988, but millions of displaced Afghans did not return. The US invasion of 2001 created new waves of displacement, and chronic outflows continued over years, creating the largest refugee crisis in the world (until it was surpassed by Syria).
Like Shukour and his family, many are now being sent back to Afghanistan. Pakistan declared its neighbour a “safe country for returns” last year and began mass deportations. They have recently started again after a three month pause, while a fence is being built to protect Pakistan from future flows. More refugees are returning from Iran and countries in Europe.
Despite the billions of dollars being poured into the “stabilisation” of Afghanistan, the latest figures on displacement paint an alarming picture. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees counted 1.8 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in the country at the end of 2016 – a threefold increase since 2012. According to a recent report by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Samuel Hall, more than 94% of IDPs surveyed said they had fled direct violence or persecution.
Many long-term refugees are at risk of becoming IDPs within their home country, with even less protection than they had before, says Nassim Majidi, lead author of the NRC report. The returnees are at risk of being displaced yet again, Majidi adds, becoming “even more vulnerable due to the lack of a support system or community”.
The capital has mushroomed in size since the turn of the millennium, from 1.5 million inhabitants in 2001 to more than 4.5 million, according to the latest estimates, with the total set to reach eight million by 2025. Add to this the recent addition of 654,000 IDPs and returnees over 2016, and you have what experts such as Majidi refer to as a powderkeg, with poverty, greater risks of natural disasters, disease and social instability.
The World Bank estimates that at least 80% of Kabul’s current population is in some kind of informal settlement. By the end of the century, the Afghan capital is projected to be home to about 50 million people, according to the Global Cities Institute.
Most of the new construction in Kabul falls under the first category: informal settlements by landless squatters like Shukour. Some are located inside the planned zones of the city under the outdated 1978 masterplan and others outside, while the residents are a mixture of returnees, IDPs migrants and locals.
The World Bank has repeatedly pointed out the value of unplanned settlements to the city of the Kabul, especially in reducing poverty and homelessness. Absorbing these homes into the planned parts of the city would help residents like Shukour access basic services – from water and power to education for his children and nephews.
Unlike the optimistic vigour of Shukour and his neighbours, the inhabitants of the Charahi Qambar camp in western Kabul appear despondent. Nicknamed Helmandi due to the origin of a majority of its inhabitants, Charahi Qambar is one of about 60 recognised informal settlements in Kabul that house 65,000 registered returnees and IDPs.
Some of the older generation of displaced people have still not been absorbed into the city. They remain cordoned off from stable employment, while humanitarian support for them has run out. Many still live in the original mud dwellings that were meant as temporary refuge – and remain without basic sanitation. Unsurprisingly, the dire conditions for long-term residents mean many newcomers steer clear of these official sites.- Read More
The capital has mushroomed in size since the turn of the millennium, from 1.5 million inhabitants in 2001 to more than 4.5 million, according to the latest estimates, with the total set to reach eight million by 2025. Add to this the recent addition of 654,000 IDPs and returnees over 2016, and you have what experts such as Majidi refer to as a powderkeg, with poverty, greater risks of natural disasters, disease and social instability.
The World Bank estimates that at least 80% of Kabul’s current population is in some kind of informal settlement. By the end of the century, the Afghan capital is projected to be home to about 50 million people, according to the Global Cities Institute.
Most of the new construction in Kabul falls under the first category: informal settlements by landless squatters like Shukour. Some are located inside the planned zones of the city under the outdated 1978 masterplan and others outside, while the residents are a mixture of returnees, IDPs migrants and locals.
The World Bank has repeatedly pointed out the value of unplanned settlements to the city of the Kabul, especially in reducing poverty and homelessness. Absorbing these homes into the planned parts of the city would help residents like Shukour access basic services – from water and power to education for his children and nephews.
Unlike the optimistic vigour of Shukour and his neighbours, the inhabitants of the Charahi Qambar camp in western Kabul appear despondent. Nicknamed Helmandi due to the origin of a majority of its inhabitants, Charahi Qambar is one of about 60 recognised informal settlements in Kabul that house 65,000 registered returnees and IDPs.
Some of the older generation of displaced people have still not been absorbed into the city. They remain cordoned off from stable employment, while humanitarian support for them has run out. Many still live in the original mud dwellings that were meant as temporary refuge – and remain without basic sanitation. Unsurprisingly, the dire conditions for long-term residents mean many newcomers steer clear of these official sites.- Read More
posted by Fakhria @ 3/17/2018
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