MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, April 17 – UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin started her six-day mission to Pakistan on Sunday with a visit to Muzaffarabad, where the pace of returns is picking up six months after the earthquake.

Addressing journalists at Thori Park camp in Muzaffarabad, Chamberlin said, “UNHCR has been here in your country for over 26 years, helping refugees from Afghanistan. With this quake it was Pakistani people who needed our help. UNHCR was privileged to assist with all of its resources the Pakistani people who have been so kind to their own neighbours, working with us to help Afghan refugees. UNHCR was one of the first agencies on the ground responding to the quake. Relief supplies were brought in from our regional warehouses and airlifted to the country through NATO.”

Six months on, with winter coming to an end and following the Pakistan authorities’ announcement that relief camps would start closing in March, quake survivors have begun returning home. More than 80,000 camp dwellers have already gone back to rebuild their homes in the last month, including more than 25,000 from Muzaffarabad alone.

As lead agency for camp management in this operation, UNHCR has been supporting the Pakistani government in the running of the temporary relief camps set up for earthquake survivors. With 132 emergency staff, and 55 mobile teams funded by the European Commission for Humanitarian Affairs (ECHO) and UK's Department for International Development (DFID), the agency is currently assisting the Pakistani authorities in 112 relief camps for over 73,000 quake survivors.

“What UNHCR wants is what the quake survivors want for themselves. They want to go home to their villages,” said Chamberlin after talking to several families in the relief camps. “We are working with various agencies like IOM to facilitate transport and return. UNHCR will continue to assist in the transitional phase, however, the long-term response will fall to other agencies.”

Chamberlin, a former US Ambassador to Pakistan, is making her first visit to Pakistan since becoming UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner in 2004. She began her Muzaffarabad trip on Sunday by visiting the Neelum Valley, commonly referred to as the “crushed valley”, where she got a first-hand look at the level of destruction caused by the quake’s landslides.

She then toured two of Muzaffarabad’s relief camps. In Jalalabad Park camp she spoke to families who are scheduled to return home on Monday and heard their views on return. She also discussed the ongoing challenges in the affected areas with quake survivors, government officials and aid workers in Thori Park camp.

This week, the Deputy High Commissioner’s agenda will focus on the future of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where UNHCR has been helping the government to care for millions of Afghan refugees since late 1979. She is expected to meet with senior government officials and the donor community in Islamabad. She will also meet with Afghan refugees in Peshawar and send off a convoy repatriating to Afghanistan before concluding her mission on Friday.




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