Over 62,000 families displaced in 6 months: AIHRC

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in a new report on Wednesday said 62,400 families have been displaced in 30 provinces of the country, with 37 percent belonging to Nangarhar province due to intensified conflicts in the last six months.

The commission said that 68 percent of these families were displaced due to conflicts and armed violence in the country.

The rights body asked the Afghan government, Taliban and the international community to jointly support the peace process and reach a ceasefire and eventually a permanent peace in the country.

AIHRC officials today in a press conference in Kabul shared their report about the human rights situation of those displaced in Afghanistan.

The report said investigations about the situation of displaced families was based on ground studies and library studies. On the ground studies, 2,903 IDPs were chosen randomly for responding to some questions in 19 provinces of the country.

Of the interviewed, 55.1 percent were men and 44.9 percent were women who were displaced from 30 provinces, the report said.

Analyzing the situation

According to AIHRC, figures from the State Ministry for Natural Disasters Management show that around five million people have been displaced as a result of conflicts and violence from anti-government groups countrywide in the last two years.

The commission’s report reveals that 62,480 families had been displaced in the last six months. The source said that 32,284 of the families were displaced just in one month, from June 7 to July 7 in 25 provinces due to conflicts.

This comes as information from the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation states that internally displaced people reach around 1.257 million people from 209,592 families in 2015.

The figures of 2015 show that the number of displaced people increased by 74.8 percent this year.

According to AIHRC, 158,392 families were displaced in the first three months of the current solar year which begins on March 21. These people were displaced due conflicts in 26 provinces of the country.

The source said that most or 22,790 families were displaced from Nangarhar province and least or 100 families from Uruzgan province.

In the last one month, 32,284 families were displaced in 25 provinces of the country, the report added.

Displacement factors

According to the AIHRC’s report, 68.1 percent of 2,903 people interviewed said that they were displaced due to conflicts, 12 percent due to bad behavior from insurgents 7.3 percent due to lack of jobs and income, 5.2 percent due to poverty, 2.4 percent due to absence of schools and health facilities, 1.5 percent to personal enmity and 1.1 percent to lack of educational facilities.  Twelve of the respondents or 0.4 percent of them did not provide a clear answer.

Time of displacement

AIHRC’s information shows that 9.7 percent of the respondents confirmed that they spent their lives in displacement for over five years.

The source says that 4.1 percent of the interviewees spent less than five years, 8.2 percent less than four years, 12.2 percent less than three years, 17.1 percent less than two years and 15.5 percent less than one year in displacement.

However, the report reveals that 32.7 percent or 949 of the respondents were displaced in less than six months.

The source says that 77 percent of the interviewees said their place of residence was not secure, 10 percent said they were without shelter, 35 percent said they had no access to health services, 52 percent said their children were deprived of education, nearly 85 percent said that they had no stable jobs while 34 percent others said that they had no access to potable water.

AIHRC again asked the Afghan government, Taliban and the international community to support the peace process, reach a ceasefire and put the ongoing conflict -- the main factor of displacement and unrest in the country -- to an end.

Mds/ma