Refugee ‘Workers Bitter Over U.N. Pittance’ in India
The United Nations is coming under increasing attack from Western aid officials in Calcutta for its apparent failure to share a larger burden of the massive East Pakistan refugee problem.
The refugees now number over six million, one of the biggest migrations in history. But the world body’s response to this influx was described yesterday by one leading independent aid expert as “a pittance”.
He added: “What I really fear is that in six months’ time there will be another emergency somewhere like Vietnam. – All the agencies will pull their medical teams out, the United Nations will zip off there as well and these people will be forgotten”.
Criticism of the United Nations efforts has been leveled on several points:
1. There is no special United Nations presence in Calcutta, nerve-center of the relief operation in India’s four’ eastern States of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura.
Absence of workers
Although both the World Health organization and the World Food Programme arc flying materials to India, neither has staff in the field.
2. Field workers complain that staff of the United Nations High commission for Refugees, billed triumphantly in May as “the focal point for United Nations assistance.” have not visited Calcutta or the Camps since then.
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the High Commissioner, spent 10 hours in the Calcutta region more than a fortnight ago. But his reported promise to establish an office in Calcutta for the return of the refugees has not materialized.
3. The United Nations has so far channeled less than a third of the £70 million collected from Governments and its own agencies to the field. One embittered relief worker said: “I think they are being so slow because they know that when that lot has gone they’re going to have nothing more to give”,
4. According to those who have attended meetings held by Indian Government Relief Officials, the United Nations was given the role of coordinating the efforts of independent aid agencies,
But the world body has remained resolutely non-operational. British voluntary agencies like Oxfarn, War on Want and the Save the Children Fund all successfully at work in the field, have received no guidance from it.
5. The United Nations has refrained from stressing what many independent observers feel is the greatest priority-that the Indian Government should be reimbursed for what it has so far spent on the refugees. Current expenditure is running – at almost £500,000 a day.
Unless there is immediate compensation, it is argued, development of the Whole country will be impaired.
Officials of private relief agencies concede. however, the United Nations is not entirely at fault on these scores having been hampered by Indian reluctance to see the refugee problem as anything more than temporary .
Reference: Peter Gill Daily Telegraph, July 5, 1971