Pakistan: Devastating Floods Force Migration
Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/melilla-never-again/
Written by: Mithila Farin
Edited by: Amineh Najam-Ud-Din
From June to August of 2022, a string of devastating floods wreaked havoc in Pakistan. These floods covered one-third of the entire nation at their peak. Climate change has led to increased droughts and dry seasons in Pakistan, making the land less resistant to high influxes of water. A stronger rain season due to intense monsoons and melting glaciers flooded many communities overnight and displaced over 33 million people across Pakistan. The heaviest floods occurred in the Sindh and Balochistan districts along the Indus River. Many displaced people noted that while they expected heavy rainfalls, they were unprepared for the overflowing of the rivers.
Pakistan first developed a national climate change policy in 2012 after catastrophic floods and displacement in 2010. The priority for the policy and its updates in 2021 included greater resistance to climate crises. However, despite this goal, the 2022 floods destroyed over 13,000 kilometers of roads, 430 bridges, and damaged over 1.4 million homes. Pakistan’s lack of disaster resistance infrastructure poses severe economic setbacks for the country as a developing nation, and will lead to increased vulnerabilities for displaced communities long-term. Due to the destruction of roads and bridges, millions of people did not receive necessary aid and resources. Further yet, the Pakistani government did not declare a national emergency at the onset of the floods. By the time a national emergency was declared, almost 1,000 people had died in the floods. Faster action is necessary to effectively distribute emergency medical and infrastructure resources to people in crises.
The dominant narrative around climate migration consists of large groups of people moving, usually across borders, due to climate crises such as droughts, infertile land, floods, and other natural disasters. However, many trends, including the trends of climate migrations in Pakistan, show more short-distance internal movements. In attempts to escape floods, many internally displaced people (IDP)evacuated to higher grounds for refuge with hopes to go back to their original homes. However, with the level of devastation, many people have moved to relief camps. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports an estimate of 575,000 people in relief camps due to the floods. The IOM displacement tracking matrix has indicated that Pakistan’s Sindh district, which was most impacted by the floods, had several areas where 50K - 230K houses were damaged. The IOM further notes that despite international assistance in humanitarian aid, millions of displaced people will not receive access to aid due to transportation and lack of effective distribution mechanisms.
Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan are among the many people uprooted by the floods. Of the 1.6 million Afghan refugees there, the floods have affected and displaced over 421,000.
IDPs from floods lack new opportunities for livelihood in nearby areas due to the expanding effects of the floods and lack of resources. IDPs lack cattle, farm land, and the crops necessary to produce their own food and income leading to increased levels of struggles. The 2022 floods have thus far destroyed 5.5 million acres of cropland and over 1.1 million livestock.
Despite catastrophic floods in 2010 and 2020 and the rising number of climate-induced IDPs, Pakistan does not have national policies regarding IDPs. Climate-induced IDPs moving to border regions also become vulnerable to military tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan and often experience a lack of resources. A lack of recognition of IDPs contributes to this lack of resources: the global human rights defense reports that Pakistan’s military, at times, labels IDPs as terrorists and people working with the Taliban which removes their rights to aid. Furthermore, the Pakistan government necessitates that IDPs have national identity cards in order to access food, medicine, and clothing. This leaves many IDPs without access to resources when they are fleeing from unexpected hazards without any belongings.
Even through October 2022, IDPs continue to rise due to the mid-2022 floods.While several international programs are currently providing humanitarian aid to Pakistan’s climate-induced IDPs, the convergence of political and climate struggles proves difficult to mitigate. Greater national recognition and protection for IDPs are required for Pakistan to effectively manage the continuing rises in climate migrants.
