Swat migration biggest internal exodus in world in 15 yrs: UN

Lahore, May 11: The massive migration of civilians from the restive northwestern Pakistan, where security forces are battling the Taliban, is the biggest ever internal exodus anywhere in the world in the past 15 years, the UN said today.

A total of 360,000 people have migrated from areas in Malakand division to relief camps in Mardan, Naushera, Swabi and Peshawar, said Arooj Saifi, a senior emergency coordinator with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Their registration with the UNHCR is continuing.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik today said the number of IDPs had crossed the one million mark.

Saifi said the situation was worse than that in Rawanda in 1994, when civil war forced some 700,000 people to migrate internally to save their lives. If no concrete and coordinated measures are adopted by the government, the situation would get worse with every passing day, he warned.

The internally displaced persons (IDPs) are in dire need of tents, food and other necessary goods, he said. The UNHCR has been making arrangements to look after the IDPs for at least two years.

"It is not possible that the IDPs will return to their homeland for at least two years under the present circumstances," he said. PTI