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CNN Live At Daybreak

UNHCR Struggles to get Camps Set Up for Refugees

Aired October 29, 2001 - 06:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: U.N. relief workers are trying to cope with the latest influx of Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

As CNN's Carol Lin reports from the border, the refugees entry into Pakistan is just one of the many challenges facing them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): At the Charman border, under the menacing eye of the Taliban, Afghan refugees meet at a tension- filled crossroads of hope and despair -- despair for those who do not have visas to Pakistan, hope for those who do. They crossed into Pakistan Sunday with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"We came here to get shelter," Miraweis told us. He says he doesn't have a penny to buy food. He is one of 150,000 refugees the UNHCR now predicts could cross into southwest Pakistan. But even if they arrive, they may not get the shelter they seek.

This is the only refugee camp they've been able to get approved at this busy border crossing, and it is temporary at best -- primitive latrines, simple tents. In a month when winter hits, aid workers want to move the refugees to a more permanent site.

(on camera): The problem is it is 40 minutes up this winding, bumpy road to a site that has no water, no facilities, nothing is set up.

(voice-over): This desolate plain is one of a handful of places Pakistan's government has only just approved for new refugees. Pakistan has been reluctant to expand existing camps or build new ones because it already cares for two million Afghan refugees and says it cannot handle more.

Even as aid workers keep negotiating with Pakistan, they stockpile tents and supplies for the flood of refugees they still expect. But they may not be able to help the vast majority of undocumented refugees, an estimated 50,000 in Quetta alone. Some would rather take their chances on the streets, some seek day labor, others beg, but here they say they feel safe.

These Shi'a refugees, ethnic minorities in Afghanistan, tell us they won't live in a camp with their historic enemy the Pashtuns. That new twist has put the UNHCR's commissioner in a tough position. RUUD LUBBERS, HIGH COMMISSIONER, UNHCR: I don't think the solution is to start a sort of ethnic cleansing, having different camps for different sorts of people. It must be possible that people live in one refugee camp together.

LIN: So Ruud Lubbers toured part of Quetta's refugee community to get the word out. Come to the refugee camps, the UNHCR will guarantee your safety. But first he has to convince Pakistan's government to not deport the Afghans who come forward and also to allow aid workers to finish building the camps. If he does not succeed, it could be a crisis the United Nations did not predict, how to explain why $50 million in international aid did not help the people who need help the most.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And what we're hearing today the latest out of Quetta, Pakistan from UNHCR is that there is still a steady stream of refugees trying to enter across this southwest border. And when they arrive at the temporary site, this is pretty much what they get. First thing, they get these high protein energy biscuits. They're trying to supplement people who may have been walking for days. They sort of taste like the vanilla wafers that we get in the United States. And then they get some supplies that should last them anywhere from two weeks to a month -- a bag of wheat, some vegetable oil and some lentils.

And what the UNHCR says it is trying to do is try to give some basic sustenance to these people until they can figure out what they can do next. They are optimistic that they are going to be able to set up four sites, now that is the latest -- four sites in this part of the province. But part of the trick here is that in addition to negotiating with the Pakistani government officials, they're also negotiating with several ethnic tribes who actually own the land and that is part of the difficulty in getting permission to set up these sites -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Carol, speaking of those ethnic tribes, the thing that stuck out at your piece -- from your piece the most to me was the part where you're talking about the Shea refugees who say that they are not -- they don't want to be in a camp with the -- with the Pashtuns, with their -- with their enemies. From a western perspective, that seems very odd that they would say that given the desperate situation that they're in that they'd even be able to take that stance. It seems they need help so desperately and they need to take it where they can get it.

LIN: Daryn, you cannot underestimate the ethnic tensions, the ethnic hatred between these different tribes. These are feelings that don't go back just hundreds of years, they go back thousands of years. And when you look at the history between the Pashtun tribes and the Shea minority in Afghanistan, there have been stories of mass slaughters throughout the centuries, not just a 1,000 or 2,000 but 6,000 or 7,000 people at a time as these tribes warred in the past. These are memories that stick with these people, even in modern Pakistan. KAGAN: Carol Lin joining us from Pakistan. Carol, thank you. Be safe. Good to see that you did arrive safely.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, nice job there -- nice job.

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