Afghanistan’s 4 million IDPs need urgent support amid pandemic

Amnesty International has called on the Afghan government and the international community to step up assistance to Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and provide urgent access to adequate housing, food, water, sanitation, and health.

“The Afghan government and the international community must urgently scale up efforts to support the country’s four million internally displaced people (IDPs), who have been left badly exposed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Amnesty International in a new briefing published on Tuesday.

The briefing, “We survived the virus, but may not survive the hunger” looks at the impact of COVID-19 on Afghanistan’s internally displaced,and details how the pandemic has made an already dire situation for IDPs even more precarious.

Living in overcrowded conditions, with insufficient access to water, sanitation, and health facilities, IDPs have little or no means of protecting themselves from contracting, spreading, and recovering from COVID-19, Amnesty International said.

The briefing also addressed the dire conditions in camps and the inadequacy of aid efforts targeted at IDPs.

Camps are cramped, unsanitary and lack even the most basic medical facilities.

According to Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, “Afghanistan’s four million displaced people live in conditions perfectly suited to the rapid transmission of a virus like COVID-19.

“The camps are cramped, unsanitary and lack even the most basic medical facilities. Despite this deadly combination, IDPs have been provided with precious little support to mitigate their situation,” said Hamidi.

“With the number of IDPs increasing daily due to ongoing conflict and the danger of a further wave of COVID infections still present, the Afghan government and international community must do more to protect IDPs.”

“Amnesty International is calling on the Afghan government and the international community to abide by their obligations to IDPs under international law, and allocate specific funding and resources targeted at IDPs to meet their urgent need to access adequate housing, food, water, sanitation, and health,” Amnesty International stated.

Amnesty International spoke to IDPs in settlements in Kabul, Herat and Nangarhar, and found in most cases basic services such as access to water and sanitation have not been provided, and with cramped living spaces, social distancing is not possible, leaving IDPs unable to maintain the hygiene required to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Amnesty International also found that IDPs have not been provided with access to adequate medical facilities in the camps.

A 45-year-old woman living in a camp in Nangarhar said: “Most families had the signs of coronavirus, but they were not able to do any test to find out whether they were affected or not. At least seven people who were believed to have contracted coronavirus died in the settlement but again we could not verify due to lack of tests and access to health facilities”.

According to the IDPs interviewed by Amnesty International, there has not been any targeted assistance to women or children by government agencies or international humanitarian organizations during the lockdown.

An IDP in Nangarhar said: “We are living with nothing honestly, we don’t have work, we don’t have money and we don’t have anywhere to live. All I want from the Afghan government and the international community is to help us return to our own villages, help us to rebuild our lives, and live in dignity.”

“COVID-19 clearly presented an enormous challenge to the Afghan government. Though unintended, measures aimed at tackling the pandemic have had a disproportionately damaging impact on IDPs – the country’s most vulnerable group. Dedicated resources and greater support from the international community must be forthcoming to mitigate that impact to the furthest extent possible,” said Hamidi.

Escalating conflict in Afghanistan over the past year has resulted in a rise in the numbers being displaced, with thousands of new cases being registered each week.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, around 327,000 people were displaced in 2020, 80 percent of whom were women and children.

The Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan, which envisioned much improved living conditions for Afghans by 2021, remains severely under-funded, with only 23 percent of requirements having been funded as of 24 July 2020.