International DevelopmentWritten evidence submitted by Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations.
Introduction
1. Amnesty International welcomes the UK’s government’s commitment to support Afghanistan beyond 2015 and the recent signing of the UK-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership. Amnesty International recognises the UK’s important contribution to reconstruction and development in Afghanistan across a wide range of sectors, including governance, education, livelihoods and agriculture. We also note the Department of International Development’s (DFID) commitment to “reduce the impact of conflict and natural disasters through effective humanitarian aid” over the next four years. However, Amnesty International is concerned that there has been little attention by international donors to address the scale of the displacement crisis in Afghanistan. It is not entirely clear what DFID’s assistance in this regard has been, but a quick review of DFID’s projects suggests an allocation of £27 million over the past two years for overall humanitarian assistance. Displacement is likely to grow as the conflict intensifies in the immediate future. The problems facing the displaced, such as lack of shelter, health care, education and economic opportunities, could erode the country’s hard-won advances and lead to greater instability in the otherwise relatively stable urban areas.
2. Much of Afghanistan’s internal displacement is a consequence of human action, as a result of the conflict. It persists because of inaction—because policymakers choose to ignore it or, worse, insist on responses that deny reality. The Afghan government and its international donor partners should acknowledge that protracted displacement is a feature of the conflict in Afghanistan and should ensure that the needs of internally displaced persons and returning refugees are adequately reflected in all government strategies and planning processes. In this context, we urge the UK government to do more to focus its humanitarian assistance on the priority needs of Afghanistan’s substantial displaced population, as outlined in our summary and recommendations below.
3. The summary below is based on Amnesty’s recent report, Fleeing war, finding misery: The plight of the internally displaced in Afghanistan (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA11/001/2012/en)
Numbers of Displaced
4. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans fleeing the conflict (or natural disasters) are condemned to live in urban slums risking starvation and hypothermia. As conflict and insecurity have intensified, the numbers of displaced Afghans have reached a record half a million. Conflict induced displacement increased rapidly in the first half of 2011—the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that nearly 100,000 people were displaced between January and June of that year. Four hundred people a day are displaced in Afghanistan on average and tens of thousands have sought shelter in makeshift camps in and around Kabul and other Afghan cities. Precise numbers are difficult to determine, but as many as 35,000 displaced persons are now living in 30 slum areas in Kabul alone.
5. Many of those who are displaced are unable to return to their homes for considerable periods of time—in fact, displacement often lasts years and in some cases decades. It is difficult to determine the total number of displaced persons with any certainty. In many conflict-affected districts, government authority extends only to district centres. Poor roads and harsh winters make other areas inaccessible for part of the year. Many displaced Afghans prefer to stay with family or friends, making it difficult to capture the full picture of displacement. And some displacement is of relatively short duration.
6. As a result of these factors, the true numbers may be much higher than UNHCR’s estimate of half a million displaced persons, particularly in light of the upward trend—in June 2009, the Brookings-Bern Project concluded that there were as many as 200,000 persons in Kandahar province alone who had suffered internal displacement due to conflict, and it found similar numbers for Helmand and Uruzgan provinces. It is clear, however, that the number of displaced persons in the country is substantial. In addition, some 2.8 million refugees remain outside the country.
Inadequate Housing
7. Tens of thousands of displaced families live in dire conditions in makeshift settlements, slum areas in and around Afghanistan’s cities. In makeshift camps, families construct shelters from mud, poles, plywood, plastic sheeting and cardboard which offer little protection from the weather. When Amnesty International researchers visited during the rainy season earth floors inside these shelters were soggy from the rainwater.
8. This year’s winter has been particularly harsh on displaced families and there have been at least 41 confirmed deaths, mostly of children, who have died from the cold and/or illness.
9. A May 2011 World Bank and UNHCR study found that internally displaced persons “live in much more hazardous housing conditions than the urban poor” and “have a much higher level of deprivation than the urban poor”. The report found 60% of displaced families live in tents, temporary shelters, or shacks, and have done so for five years or more. Over 70% of displaced households lack access to electricity; in comparison 18% of the urban poor lack access.
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
10. Access to water was a serious concern. In displaced communities served by private water delivery trucks, some residents cannot afford to buy enough water to meet their daily. In many communities, water supplies are several kilometres away. Even in those communities that do have water pumps, the number is insufficient to meet demand.
11. In Bareekaab, located 10 kilometres outside of Bagram, which has no source of water for its 150 families, a water tanker delivers 8,000 litres each day—between six and eight litres per person per day for drinking, washing, and cooking. Children haul the remainder of the water that is necessary for their daily needs from a well three kilometres away. Some families have no option except to beg for water from the residents of nearby apartment blocks.
12. Estimates of minimum water needs vary. At the very low end, the Sphere Project’s Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response estimate that a person needs between 7.5 and 15 litres of water a day for drinking, basic hygiene, and basic cooking. That estimate is close to the bare minimum required for survival. Indicators developed by UN-Habitat call for a minimum of 20 litres of water per person per day; much more may be required, depending on individual circumstances. In addition, as UN-Habitat indicators note, access to safe water requires that households should not have to spend an undue proportion of income or time to acquire it. The World Health Organization has estimated that when water access is basic, requiring a walk of up to one kilometre or within 30 minutes roundtrip, families are unlikely to be able to collect more than 20 litres per person daily, resulting in high public health risk from poor hygiene. When water collection requires a walk of more than one kilometre or more than 30 minutes roundtrip, families are unlikely to be collect more than five litres per person each day, hygiene practice is compromised, and basic consumption needs are not met; the World Health Organization classifies such conditions as “no access” to water.
13. The land on which displaced communities reside often serves as a dumping ground for refuse from neighbouring buildings. There are too few latrines for the number of residents, and it is difficult for residents to keep these latrines clean. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that skin infections and diarrhoea are common, especially among children. Life in close quarters in unhygienic conditions means that illness spreads easily, particularly among young children.
Access to Health Care
14. There are no state health clinics near some of the communities Amnesty International visited. Residents instead must go to private clinics, at significant cost; pay for transport to reach a state clinic; or, as many do, forego care entirely. Mobile clinics provide care to some communities, but their staff often lack the expertise to provide specialist care. In particular, women reported that mobile clinics often lack the expertise to address gynaecological concerns. Most women do not receive antenatal care, and it is common to give birth at home without skilled attendants. The risks of unattended childbirth are particularly high in communities such as Bareekaab. Such obstacles to health care substantially increase the risk of maternal death, in a country that already has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world.
15. Even where state clinics are available, they do not provide medication other than vaccinations and contraception, meaning that most medication must be purchased from private pharmacies. Many families told Amnesty International that they could not even pay for medications, or that they covered these costs at the expense of food or other necessities.
Access to Food
16. Many displaced families told Amnesty International that they routinely did not get enough to eat. Many had only one meal a day, and parents regularly skipped meals so that their children could have slightly more. Children frequently scavenge or beg to supplement what their families are able to buy.
Access to Education
17. Education is often unavailable for displaced children. They may be refused enrolment or threatened with expulsion if they cannot produce a national identification card (a tazkera), a document that most Afghans do not have and which in practice they can obtain only in their home province. Some are turned away for wearing dirty clothes, an unavoidable circumstance given their families’ limited access to water. For some internally displaced children there isn’t a school near enough for them to attend. Informal schools are frequently the only option for displaced children, but such schools do not always offer a full curriculum and may employ staff who lack basic qualifications to teach.
Employment
18. Work is hard to find for displaced residents in all of the settlements visited by Amnesty International. With the exception of some short-term projects funded by some nongovernmental organisations, the few jobs that do exist are informal. Many of the men and boys work as porters, carrying produce and goods as needed. Indeed, families regularly cited the lack of employment as their biggest concern. Without regular and sufficient income, they often do not get enough food to eat, and they may not have enough money to get the treatment they need for serious health conditions. The feelings of insecurity and doubts about self-worth that come from not being able to provide for oneself and one’s family may also contribute to intra-family violence.
Sexual Violence and Harassment
19. Constant concerns about earning enough to be able to eat, threats of eviction, and the trauma of displacement all take their toll. Some react to their sense of humiliation and doubts about the future by lashing out at family members or neighbours. While most residents were circumspect about this aspect of their new lives, several of those Amnesty International interviewed suggested that violence against women in particular occurred more frequently than before they had been displaced.
Threat of Forced Eviction
20. Displaced communities live under constant threat of forced eviction. In the typical scenario, a group of men arrives, claiming to own the land and telling families that they must leave. Some communities have been able to meet with government officials and obtain promises that they can remain where they are. In other cases, however, families must rush to move their belongings before bulldozers level their shelters; they then have to scavenge what they can from the rubble to rebuild elsewhere.
21. The state has no real alternative for those who are evicted. It has encouraged some residents to relocate to new plots located outside Kabul and Herat. Not all members of the community qualify for land reallocation—and it is not clear why some qualify and others do not. Those who qualify find that the land they are offered is too distant from employment opportunities, health services, schooling, and even sources of water to be practical alternatives. As a consequence, those who are evicted are made homeless.
22. International law requires that evictions comply with appropriate procedural safeguards and afford due process to all affected persons. Evictions must not result in people being rendered homeless or made vulnerable to other human rights violations.
Limits to Humanitarian Assistance
23. Levels of funding for Afghanistan’s Ministry for Refugees & Repatriation are very low—the entire budge of the MoRR in 2011 was $6 million. This money is intended for both Afghanistan’s internally displaced people and the refugee population. Even if the money went solely to Afghanistan’s 500,000 displaced people, and none to refugees, this equates to only $12 per person.
24. Furthermore, the current response to internal displacement is chaotic and disorganised—stopgap measures alone are no substitute for effective, coordinated government strategies to deal with displacement. Currently aid to displaced communities is almost entirely left to humanitarian organisations. For many communities, the Afghan government’s failure to lead on the provision and coordination of assistance means that non-governmental organisations are left to co-ordinate their efforts as best they can. Assistance for many settlements is sporadic—it may be limited to the winter period, for example, or a short job training programme.
25. Amnesty International frequently heard from humanitarian agencies that the government prevented them from undertaking projects that would suggest or encourage permanence. This policy means that local authorities often deny permission to humanitarian organisations to drill wells; those groups that wish to assist with the provision of clean water must instead pay for tanker deliveries. Moreover, many Afghan government officials deny that displacement is a problem of describe displaced persons as “economic migrants,” even though over 180,000 fled the fighting in 2011 alone.
Recommendations
26. As a key international partner, the UK government must respond to the Afghanistan’s growing displacement crisis before it begins undoing the country’s modest gains in economic development and access to education and health care. “We’re talking now about transition” from international forces to Afghan authority, a humanitarian aid worker told Amnesty International in June 2011. “There’s a serious humanitarian crisis out there. Protection concerns are completely unmet.” These protection concerns must be addressed as a matter of the highest priority and urgency.
27. In the long term, Amnesty International strongly urges the UK government to assist the Afghan government in developing a comprehensive action plan to tackle displacement. Although there is a rudimentary strategy (set out in Afghanistan’s National Development Strategy) for addressing returning refugees and, to a limited extent internal displacement, it does not address the realities of the crisis. Indeed, it is little more than a statement of principles and goals that by and large ignore displacement except to express a strong preference for return as the preferred outcome. This basic strategy is not properly resourced, and it is poorly implemented, with little coordination at national, regional, and municipal levels. Any effective long-term strategy must include other durable solutions such as local reintegration or resettlement elsewhere.
28. In the immediate term, we call on the UK government to urge Afghanistan to take specific steps to provide humanitarian assistance, prevent forced evictions, guarantee adequate housing, and ensure access to food, water, sanitation, health services, and education. The United Kingdom (and other donor countries) should also reflect these priorities in the direct assistance they provide to Afghanistan.
29. To address the human rights violations that internally displaced persons experience once they have sought safety, Amnesty International calls on UK government to:
Ensure that the UK government’s humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan includes a focus on internally displaced persons (and returning refugees) and should support initiatives that address the priority needs of these populations.
Ensure that assistance to the displaced is on the agenda at the Tokyo Donors Conference (5 July 2012) and that the conference’s outcome includes a strategic response to the problems of the displaced in Afghanistan.
30. Amnesty International also calls on the UK government to urge and assist the Afghan government to:
As a matter of priority, provide for the immediate needs—including shelter, food, water, and health care—for those who are internally displaced, seeking international assistance and support if necessary.
Adopt measures to ensure the effective protection of internally displaced persons, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, until such time as they are able either to return to their homes voluntarily and in safety and dignity or resettle.
Enact and enforce a clear prohibition on forced evictions, and adopt guidelines for evictions based on the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-Based Evictions and displacement.
Implement procedures to allow identity cards to be issued throughout the country. Displaced persons and returning refugees should not be required to travel to their place of birth or former residence in order to have identification cards issued.
Immediately ensure that all children, including displaced children, have access to primary education, in accord with international law and the Afghan constitution. In particular, no child should be refused enrolment or expelled for failure to produce an identity document.
31. As a troop-contributing country to NATO/ISAF, the UK government should do more to understand and address the impact of the conflict (or impending conflict) on displacement, even when casualty rates are low and international humanitarian law has been met. In particular, the UK as troop-contributing country should:
Monitor and assess the impact of military operations on displacement and to take all measures to minimise displacement in areas of operations.
Share information on humanitarian needs and displacement with humanitarian actors, and encourage Afghan National Security Forces to do the same.
May 2012