KABUL (SW): The findings of Amnesty International indicate that the number of Afghans displaced by war and insecurity in the country this year has soared to 1.5 million.
Comparing to the previous years, the number of internally displaced individuals has increased by manyfolds. The Amnesty International research team has closely followed the situation of displaced Afghans in Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif provinces. Compared to previous year, the findings show that the situation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has worsened.
Speaking at the press conference, Champa Patel, the director at Asia Office of the Amnesty International, expressed her concerns about the condition of IDPs. She said the world has not paid enough attention to Afghanistan and the internally displaced Afghans are living in pitiable condition. Champa Patel added that though the IDPs were promised to be sheltered, they are still struggling for drinking water, shelter and lacks access to schools.
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Criticizing the Afghan government, the director at Asian Office at the Amnesty International, sated that although a strategy for solving the IDPs related problems was passed in the year 2014, the Kabul government has still not implemented it. She noted that the government ran out of budget to apply its strategies for resolving the IDPs’ problems. Champa Patel warned that if the government did not move to change IDPs’ pitiable situation, it would turn into a deeper crisis.
After meeting the IDPs in person, Olaf Weiss, a researcher at the Amnesty International, said that food and shelter shortages are the main challenge ahead to IDPs. Muhammad Hussein, an internally displaced man from Badakhshan province, who was representing the IDPs in today’s press conference, told the journalists that as days pass, their plight is getting worst. He said that the IDPs are running out of food, drinking water, shelter and have no access to schools.
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