The ICRC in Pakistan

The ICRC distributes food to flood victims in Sibi district in Pakistan. An ICRC field officer explains the contents of a food package to a boy who turned up on his own to fetch his ration.

The ICRC, which arrived in Pakistan in 1947, has been operating there uninterruptedly since 1981. Its current operations focus on: visiting security detainees; assisting residents and people displaced by armed violence; supporting the Pakistan Red Crescent Society; ensuring care of the weapon-wounded and the disabled; and promoting IHL and support for humanitarian action.

The record floods that struck Pakistan in July – August 2010 continue to take a massive toll on the country’s population, particularly on rural communities and remote regions already reeling from armed violence.

The hostilities that began in north-eastern Pakistan in mid-2008 have had dramatic effects on the humanitarian situation there. In particular, an upsurge in fighting between the Pakistani armed forces and armed groups in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) since May 2009 has left hundreds of thousands of residents stranded and deprived of basic services. It also triggered mass displacements of population, estimated at over 2.5 million people, from different districts and agencies in KP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The armed conflict in Afghanistan continues to affect the border areas of Baluchistan, with scores of casualties crossing the frontier into the province in search of medical care.

Access to people in need remains hampered by the fighting and related security measures, such as checkpoints and curfews, and constant population movements. However, working with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, the ICRC has stepped up its assistance to civilians in areas affected by the fighting and to internally displaced people (IDPs) who have found refuge in safer areas – in camps, among host families or other shelters. At the same time the ICRC is working to bring aid to 1.4 million people in desperate need of help following the devastating floods.

The ICRC has helped get the main hospitals in Buner and Swat up and running again, provided emergency relief to IDPs and restored family links severed by displacement.

The ICRC supports the Pakistan Red Crescent Society and other organizations in running services in IDP camps by improving water supply, constructing latrines and bathing and kitchen facilities, and providing cooked food and basic health care. Outside the camps, it supports the National Society’s mobile health units and supplies government health facilities. Following their return home, former IDPs receive wheat seed and fertilizer to enable them to resume livelihoods disrupted by the fighting.

In Peshawar the ICRC's surgical field hospital treats weapon-wounded patients. Its physical rehabilitation programme helps patients disabled by their injuries return to a normal life.

The ICRC has been visiting Pakistani detention facilities since 2007. It runs a programme that helps families keep in contact with relatives held in Pakistan or abroad.