9 May 2012

AFGHANISTAN / AMOS SETTLEMENTS

On a four-day visit to Afghanistan, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos visited an informal settlement outside of Kabul today and said she was “appalled” by the unacceptable conditions that families are forced to endure. UNAMA

Posted at: May 9, 2012 5:02 pm

Duration: 02:01

Available in: SD

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STORY: AFGHANISTAN / AMOS SETTLEMENT
TRT: 2.01
SOURCE: UNAMA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 9 MAY 2012, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

SHOTLIST:

9 MAY 2012, PARWAN 2, KABUL CITY, AFGHANISTAN

1. Various shots, children at informal settlement 
2. Wide shot, Amos arrives with delegation to settlement
3. Various shots, Amos meeting with camp leaders
4. Med shot, Amos interacting with children at settlement
5. Wide shot, Amos walking in settlement
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
"The number of camps has more than doubled. We're talking to people who are here for a variety of reasons. People who have returned as refugees and have no where else to go. Some are people who have been displaced within Kabul from areas where there has been fighting. Clearly there is a lot of work that we need to do. Talking to the local municipality, because there is a real issue here of finding land and helping people to relocate. The situation as we can all see here is deeply, deeply distressing and expecting people to go on living in these kinds of conditions is not acceptable."
7. Wide shot, huts and tents in settlement
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
"I have to say that coming to this informal settlement, hearing the concerns over the community living here and seeing for myself the terrible conditions that people are living in. I think that we have to more than double our efforts to try to work with the local municipality, to work with the government to find ways in which we can help to relocate people. The conditions in which people are asked to live in are completely unacceptable."
9. Wide shot, children looking ahead
10. Med shot, Amos leaving the settlement and children waving goodbye

STORYLINE:

On a four-day visit to Afghanistan, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos visited an informal settlement in Kabul.

On Wednesday (9 May) she traveled to Parwan 2 settlement in Kabul City, where she met with some of the 80 families living in the settlement and witnessed first-hand the many hardships of living in lean-to shanties, with little access to water and sanitation, basic hygiene, health, education, and access to regular income. 
While this community does receive some support from government-run medical facilities and international NGOs such as Solidarités and Welthungerhilfe, this does little to address the underlying issue of displacement that forces families into such circumstances.

Amos said that the situation at the settlement was "deeply, deeply distressing and expecting people to go on living in these kinds of conditions is not acceptable."

Since 2002, 5.7 million Afghan refugees have returned with mixed reintegration results.  A further 5 million documented and undocumented Afghans continue to reside in Iran and Pakistan.  Almost 500,000 Afghans are internally displaced as a result of conflict and natural hazards, 185,000 of which were recorded in 2011 alone.

Amos also emphasized that the conditions in which people were asked to live in "are completely unacceptable."