PESHAWAR (PAKISTAN), Nov 10 (Reuters) The UN refugee agency today vrepared a remote fite in northern tribalareas and another on the south of Pakistans frontier, thefirst of 11 new camps the government has approved for Afghans fleeing drought and war in their homeland.
"This is not an ideal situation but it beats being out in the open without any sort of assistance or protection , then they are subject to deportation," Sati Kaba, spokeswoman for the UN high commissioner for refugees, told Reuters.
"So this is an alternative and hopefully if the crisis doesnt last too long these are people who could maybe be among the first ones who would return to Afghanistan." Pakistan gave approval for eight camps in the north west frontier province and three in the southern border province of baluchistan on Wednesday after weeks of trying to bridge the gap between the UNHCR, which wanoed full refugee status, and Pakistan, which wants to keep refugees inside Afghanistan.
"From the surveys we have done we have some 135,=00 (refugees)," said Kaba.
"They have been trickling in and the numbers have been growing.
They are mostly in the cities.
They are living in extremely difficult conditions, its almost intolerable.
"Most of them come with nothing at all, they have sold almost everything theynpossess so they could pay their transport to Pakistan and also pay the servqces of the smugglers," she said, citing a two-room mud-walled house where 35 people were living.
The first to move will be about 250 people transferred from the border near the Baluchistan capital of Quetta to a new camp at Roghani, a half-hour drive away, on Sunday.
UNHCR spokesman Yusuf Hassan said in Islamabad it could take about three days to move all 3,000 people from a holding area on the border.
Further north, UNHCR trucks left today for the new camp of Katkai, 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Peshawar, with tents to house administration facilities and store aid like blankets and tents for the refugees who are to start arriving at the rate of 500 a day on Wednesday.
It is designed for an initial capacity of 20,000 people.
"We could not go further (in preparation) because this is a place where unfortunately you have a site today and tomorrow it could be retrieved," Kaba said.
Those moved to Katkai will be chosen from the most destitute in Jallozai camp, a squalid encampment outside Peshawar with no proper facilities and no formal recognition as a refugee camp.
Twenty trucks a day will move them north.
But Pakistans reluctance to take more refugees beyond the estimated 2.5 million already inside its borders has left those moving to the new refugee camps with fewer rights than those already there.
"We had hoped that the government would grant them asylum on a temporary basis.
That is not the case," said Kaba.
"Actually the government is staying away from using the word refugees.
They are talking about externally displaced Afghans.
"Refugees will be confined to the camp area, they are not allowed movement outside the camp," she said.
Kaba said Pakistan had demanded that new camps be fenced.
The restrictions and the siting of the refugee camps near the Afghan border reflect Pakistans determination to reduce rather than increase the number of refugees it is hosting.
Pakistans military ruler general Pervez Musharraf told UN officials at a tense meeting a week ago that he wanted refugee camps inside Afghanistan.
But he conceded that something had to be done for those continuing to seep through the porous frontier.
"Its very difficult to stop the flow because people are running away from the bombs, they are running away from conscription by both forces, the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, so they will not stop," Kaba said.
Pakistan fears refugee camps act as a magnet for the millions of Afghans who depended on foreign aid until the start of US bombing on October 7 disrupted humanitarian aid.
Most of those, including some too poor or weak to reach a border, remain in a countryside impoverished by three years of drought.
But the UNHCR says the 11 camps now approved by Pakistan can be expanded and the government has proposed sites for more, if necessary.