The prolonged civil war in Afghanistan left millions of migrants in the past 35 years. Afghans mostly migrated during the last phase of civil war between 1996-2001 in great numbers. Their immediate homes were the refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan being a bit more generous than Iran (probably because of more UN and US funding), erected huge refugee camps that housed tens of thousands of Afghans. One such case is the Kacha Garhi Camp located in Peshawar. Afghan refugees had lived in this camp for at least 25 years, and they had to finally repatriate under a UN-sponsored Repatriation Program; they vacated the camp as early as 2005. The camp then looked like a mini-desert across the posh town of Hayatabad.

This camp turned out to be so attracting that it soon received new dwellers. This time, it was not the influx of Afghan refugees but the displaced people from the infamous tribal belt of Pakistan, popularly known as FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) due to the ongoing operation by the Pakistani Army against the Taliban and its allies in the tribal belt. These displaced people are now suffering the worst of their fate.

The climate has also been harsh on them with cold winter arriving. Heart-breaking stories cover the pages everyday. The government has restricted itself to the provision of tents only and that has to be received after proper registration. Women and children suffer the most due to this time- consuming process. The other day, the famous English daily DAWN covered a heart-breaking story about the women who are pregnant and find it had to walk through the mountainous terrain of Bajaur in order to reach Peshawar. They have to walk for at least 36-48 hours continuously. Lots of such stories have been reported while most still remain unreported.

The area of this camp is big enough to house at least 100 thousand refugees at a time; it was the largest refugee camp in Peshawar. However, it has got no health facility. The Commissioner for Afghan Refugees, located in Hayatabad would once exclusively deal with matters pertaining to Afghans, now is too busy in monitoring the worsening situation in this camp. They lack basic health facilities, they don’t have enough man power, and the NGOs can’t do anything that is of substantial benefit to the refugees.

In such a case, the closest neighborhoods will have to suffer as it’s a common understanding that in such a situation, to feed the hungry mouths, crimes will have to be committed and the crime rate will increase; it in fact has increased to an alarming rate over the past few years.

The question is what can be done? To my view, in the closest vicinity of this camp, the most popular universities of the province, where tens of thousands of students are receiving their higher education, such as, University of Peshawar, NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, IM sciences, ICMS, IQRA, Preston University, and many more are located that can provide their students, as volunteers, to engage in social service after their classes.

It will also be very positive on the part of the government to extend formal requests to these institutions to provide man power to deal with this worsening crisis. After all, universities are not meant only to provide degree-holders who would run after jobs in prestigious organizations. Here they can prove that they are up to the challenge and can help these suffering people.

Now that this old camp is housing Pakistani citizens, it’s the duty of the Pakistani civil society, like educational institutions, to run for help and lessen the sufferings of these guests. By the way, Pakhtoons are particularly known for their hospitality. So now it is the right time for the citizens of Peshawar to show their hospitality.