GENEVA, 10 Oct. (UNHCR) - With the security situation in Pakistan posing serious obstacles to the humanitarian effort underway in the region, work on prospective refugee campsites in Quetta and Peshawar was halted for the third consecutive day Wednesday, the UN Refugee Agency said.
Despite
the security problems, the agency announced it would resume the
airlifting of relief supplies from Copenhagen to Pakistan on Thursday after a brief interruption due to airspace restrictions in the region.
The
refugee agency said that the difficult security situation in Pakistan "has
drastically limited the freedom of movement of UNHCR international staff, with
supplies being ferried mostly by local contractors."
Several
international and local relief agencies were reportedly attacked Monday and
Tuesday in the towns of Hangu, Landi Kotal, and Bajuar around Peshawar. UNHCR's
office in Quetta sustained relatively little damage in Monday's demonstrations.
At a meeting with the relief agency's staff, officials and local police
expressed regret over the incidents and said they would increase security in
Quetta and provide guards for staff travelling to the field.
Although
no one was injured, demonstrators on Monday broke windows at the UNHCR office
and forced the staff to seek safety elsewhere. The United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) building in Quetta was burned by the demonstrators.
"The
string of attacks and continuing security interests highlight the
difficulties
for local and international relief agencies to operate safely in the tribal
areas, where the government has identified possible sites for temporary refugee
settlements," the relief agency said in a statement.
"Despite
the security situation, UNHCR continues to build stockpiles of
relief
items in the border areas," the statement added.
On
Tuesday, more than 3,000 tents were dispatched to Peshawar and Quetta from
Karachi, the agency said. That shipment brings the stock of tents in Peshawar
to 15,000, enough to house 80,000 people. In Quetta, there are 5,000 tents out
of the 30,000 needed to accommodate the first 150,000 refugees.
Flights
carrying relief supplies to Pakistan were briefly suspended due to the
restricted airspace in the region. The flight scheduled to depart Thursday will
carry 10,000 plastic sheets and materials to register the refugees, the agency
said.
Thursday's
flight is the first of up to ten such flights the refugee agency is planning
over the next two weeks, if security conditions permit. The flights will
alternate between Copenhagen and Peshawar and Copenhagen and Quetta, the key
locations where UNHCR is building relief stocks to handle any refugee influx.
In
another development, a UNHCR field team Tuesday accompanied two trucks of
relief supplies to a new base in Nehbandan, Iran, about 400 kilometres south of
Mashad near the Afghan border. The material was part of an effort to build up
emergency supplies in the region. A water assessment mission also headed for
Nehbandan Tuesday to evaluate potential campsites in the area, the agency said.