AFGHANISTAN: Displaced residents living in temporary shelters in Kabul call for more protection for their children in the bitter cold winter

Record ID: 173962

  • Title: AFGHANISTAN: Displaced residents living in temporary shelters in Kabul call for more protection for their children in the bitter cold winter
  • Date: 24th January 2013
  • Summary: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (JANUARY 23, 2013) (REUTERS) U.S MILITARY CONVOY DRIVING PAST DISPLACED SHELTER
  • Embargoed: 8th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Afghanistan
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Topics: Health,Politics,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVA6137TKLYJ88S94Q8JVBHULA2N
  • Story Text: Displaced Afghans living in temporary shelters in Kabul called for more help to protect their children from the freezing winter.
    Amnesty International said at least 17 people, including 11 children, have died mostly from the cold in Afghanistan's displaced settlements in early January. The deaths all occurred in the first two weeks of January - four in Herat and 13 in Kabul.
    Taj Mohammad, who moved from the volatile Helmand province to Kabul, said his son and newborn baby died from the cold.
    "It was a snowy evening and my three-year-old child had a high fever and a cold. The next day when we woke up in the morning, he died due to the freezing cold. Also my newborn baby who was born in Kabul Malali hospital, after we brought her back home from hospital, she died due to cold weather," he said.
    The previous winter was unusually cold in Afghanistan, and more than 100 people, mostly children, died in displacement camps as a result of the harsh winter conditions.
    Amnesty said the organisation, along with others, had repeatedly made calls to the Afghan government and the international community to avoid a repeat of last year's deaths.
    "We have lots of problems here, everyone here faces problems, people suffering from different types of illness due to cold weather. We have a lack of food, firewood and shelter. Women and children have died here all because of the cold weather," said another displaced resident from Helmand, Mohammad Wali.
    "We urge the government to bring peace in the country first of all and our second need is shelter. We don't have land to build houses in our hometown Helmand province, so we ask the government to provide us shelter," he added.
    Child Protection department Director Mohammad Yousuf said the government had a responsibility to give protection to those displaced.
    "Of course this is the responsibility of the government to protect its citizens. These people escaped from conflict and war from their home towns and have come to Kabul and other big cities in order to stay alive and to save their children so that they can go to schools. This is not acceptable if they lose their lives in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, because of cold weather. The government has a responsibility to protect them," he said.
    Yousuf said the Afghan government was working on a much-needed comprehensive policy for those internally displaced that should recognise their protection and humanitarian needs.
    However, he added, there was a lack of co-operation among the humanitarian agencies in recognising the most needy.
    Decades of conflict have left Afghanistan with one of the highest internally displaced populations in the world, estimated to be 450,000, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, but the actual number is likely to be much higher.
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