News
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Millions of displaced people facing ‘secondary disaster’ in cities: report
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Millions of people, displaced by natural and manmade disasters, often face a ‘secondary disaster’ that comes from living in unplanned and informal settlements. They lack necessary social services, including healthcare and clean water, which they struggle to access alongside facing an increased exposure to sexual and gender-based violence.
This was revealed at the launch of World Disasters Report 2012 at a ceremony jointly organised by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Wednesday.
The report stresses that people forcibly displaced by a conflict, disasters, persecution and other factors are increasingly seeking refuge in cities and not in relief camps.
The PRCS’ Mian Muhammad Javed said that this year World Disasters Report focuses on forced migration and displacement. He said that at present, Red Cross estimates that there are more than 72 million forced migrants, which is equivalent of one in every hundred people on the planet.
These are people who do not have a choice but to leave their homes and flee because of a range of predictable factors such as conflict and violence.
“Think of Syria and the Arab Spring, political persecution, mega natural disasters like Haiti and our own country Pakistan and even poorly planned development projects,” he said.
As the report outlines, governments can also minimise the impact of migration on their communities and can even benefit from new arrivals by including migrant health issues in national health plans and by working more broadly to ensure that migrants become productive members of their new communities.
“This is the change of mindset that is needed as we grapple with this challenge facing all of us today. Governments and humanitarian organisations are still struggling to figure out how to support these people who have fled a disaster or a conflict and who have ended up living in informal parts of towns or cities,” Javed said.
PRCS Secretary General Dr Mehboob Sardar in his welcome address said, “We are launching the 20th issue of the World Disasters Report (WDR) that focuses on ‘forced migration and displacement’. WDR is our flagship publication, recognised as a valuable resource across multiple sectors on current issues impacting vulnerable people.”
Sardar added, “In Pakistan, displacement is no longer a once-in-years phenomenon, as we see countless number of migrants throughout the year because of domestic conflicts and natural disasters that have become more frequent than ever and the country’s capacity to withstand their consequences is going down.”
“We have been facing a number of natural and manmade disasters for the last few years, namely the worst and historic floods, cyclones and catastrophic earthquakes. A single disaster like the floods that devastated the country in the year 2010 displaced more than five million people who stayed in various camps for months. Pakistan Red Crescent Society was one of the major stakeholders during that disaster and managed to provide temporary shelters to the IDPs.”
IFRC Head of Delegation Karen H Bjornestad said that for IFRC, World Disaster Report 2012 provides practical backing for “our ongoing call to governments to ensure that migrants, irrespective of their legal status, should have access to humanitarian assistance and that they are treated at all times with respect and dignity”.
In November 2011, at the 31st International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, 164 governments agreed to this principle by adopting a resolution in this regard.
She stressed that governments need to adopt new policies and strategies that recognise the rights of migrants while helping them become productive members of communities and not a burden, as some may perceive.
Others who also spoke on the occasion included UNHCR Pakistan representative Neill Wright, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Head of Delegation Paul Castella and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Country Director Francesco D’Ovidio.
A copy of World Disaster Report 2012 was officially handed over to International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Chief of Mission Enrico Ponziani to signify the official launch of the book in Pakistan.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk