Widespread Trauma Among Displaced Pakistanis

Jamil (left), age 3, is suffering from trauma he's recently experienced, including the death of his older brother. (2009 Ashfaq Yusufzai)

ISLAMABAD (June 17, 2009) - The conflict in northwestern Pakistan has not only forced more than 3 million people from their homes, but left as many as 70 percent of them seriously traumatized, the international humanitarian organization CARE said in advance of World Refugee Day, June 20. 

Doctors treating internally displaced persons (IDPs) say many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). "These are people who have lost everything," says Hasan Mazumdar, country director of CARE in Pakistan. "They urgently need counseling and emotional care."

The government and humanitarian agencies are working under difficult conditions to meet the basic needs of IDPs, who face the threat of illnesses such as diarrhea and other water-borne diseases. But physical ailments are only part of the problem, said a doctor from one of CARE's local partner agencies in Mardan district.

"We have been examining about 200 patients per day," the doctor said. "Of them 70 percent, mostly women and children, suffer from mental problems."

Mazumdar said many of the survivors will carry lifelong wounds from the violence and destruction they have experienced. IDPs avoid speaking about what they have witnessed. "One seven-year-old boy was unable to speak for three weeks," he said.

CARE is seeking funds that will enable mobile clinic workers to provide basic health care and psychosocial support to 11,000 children and women, Mazumdar said.

"If these children don't get help coping with their emotional trauma, they risk suffering lifelong psychological illness," Mazumdar said. "Homes can be rebuilt, but young hearts may never mend."

World Refugee Crisis

CARE's Work:

• In 2008, CARE assisted more than 2.2 million refugees and internally displaced people forced to flee their homes due to conflict.
  
  
• We also provided assistance to nearly 800,000 people displaced from their homes after natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and cyclones.

Quick Facts:

• The number of people forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution worldwide stood at 42 million at the end of 2008 amid a sharp slowdown in repatriation and more prolonged conflicts resulting in protracted displacement.
  
  
• New displacement in 2009 has already more than offset the decline.
  
  
• The total includes 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 26 million internally displaced people uprooted within their own countries.
  
  
• Eighty percent of the world's refugees are in developing nations, as are the vast majority of internally displaced people.
  
  
• About 2 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDP) were able to return home in 2008, decline from the year before.
  
  
• Refugee repatriation (604,000) was down 17 percent, while IDP returns (1.4 million) dropped by 34 percent.
  
  
• Developing countries hosted 80 percent of all refugees, underscoring the disproportionate burden carried by those least able to afford it as well as the need for international support.
  
  
• Pakistan is host to the largest number of refugees worldwide (1.8 million), followed by the Syrian Arab Republic (1.1 million) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (980,000).
  
  
• One out of four refugees in the world is from Afghanistan.
  
  
• Iraqis are the second largest refugee group, with 1.9 million having sought refuge mainly in neighboring countries.

Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)