“We all suffer from the United Nations to strengthen the ban on women who work with us … We are simply unable to operate without women,” said Arafat Jamal, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Representative of Afghanistan, one day after agencies warned that the measures of de facto authorities have influenced life -saving aid for hundreds of thousands of people.
Last Sunday, in reality Afghan security forces prevented national female staff and contractors from the UN for the connections of the global body in Kabul, the UN mission in the country, Unama, said on Thursday in a statement.
Centers closed
And in the light of the limitations on Tuesday, UNHCR closed his money and support centers temporarily for vulnerable Afghans, both on the border and in areas where so many people have returned from Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere since the beginning of the year.
The registration process includes the provision of biometric data, together with screening and interviews – work that “would be completely impossible without Afghan female employees”, the UNHCR officer emphasized and noted that more than one to two returners are women.
‘This was an operational decision,“Mr. Jamal went on.‘It is not a decision to punish someone or to make a statement, but it only shows that we cannot work without female employees in certain circumstances. “
Since the beginning of the year, around 2.6 million Afghans have returned from neighboring countries – “many not in choice,” said UNHCR.
Mr Jamal noticed that the pace of the return continues to rise, with nearly 100,000 people who cross Pakistan back in the first week of September alone, “our capacities and capacities of this country stretch to the limit“.
Aftershocks echoes
Following those worries, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) warned that Afghanistan is still faltering of the earthquake of 6.0 magnitude that hit provinces on August 31, followed by several serious aftershocks.
At least 1,172 children died, more than half of the entire death toll, said UNICEF country representative in Afghanistan, Dr. Tajuden Oyewale.
Briefing journalists in Geneva via Videolink, Dr. Oyewale described the meeting of young victims of the disaster in Machkandol in Nangahar, three girls and a young boy saved from the emergency situation.
“For the girls it was even more sobering; they were lost; they lost their families, their houses have been destroyed,” he said. “The cattle family died. And for these young girls and this young boy the future is completely gloomy.”
The provinces affected by the earthquake are mountainous and extremely remote, the UNICEF officer persecuted.
Stuck unpaved roads
“It is filled with steep terrain, difficult navigation … It took us about a three and a half hour drive, of which 40 minutes were on paved road and the rest was due to rough roads, many turns with stalled vehicles and especially with falling rocks on the road.”
Humanitarians warn that the earthquake has exacerbated the existing acute problems of Afghanistan.
In total, the crisis has claimed more than 2,164 lives, at least 3,428 people have been injured and at least 6,700 houses were destroyed or badly damaged.
“Behind these figures are children who are alone in the rubble and families torn apart in an instant … Unicef literally goes one step further and does everything that is needed to achieve these children and families with the support they need,” Dr. Dr. Oyewale.
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