Innocent victims

PESHAWAR: Mothers in Afghan refugee camps are allegedly feeding their babies opium to avoid disturbance during their work, Bol News has learnt.

The children of refugees from war-torn Afghanistan, living in the Khorasan refugee camp in Pakistan, end up getting addicted to the drug as their mothers continue to weave carpets.

The women in the camps, associated with the carpet-weaving industry, feed their children opium so that they could complete their work without any disturbance.

Khorasan camp is the oldest facility in Pakistan established for Afghan nationals who were displaced due to the conflict in their country. The camp is located on Peshawar-Charsadda Road, about 25 kilometres from Peshawar.

Aya Jan, 50, is the grandmother of three children including two grandsons and a granddaughter. They belong to Qarqin, a town in the northern part of Jowzjan province in Afghanistan.

Jan lives in a small muddy house including two rooms and an open kitchen; she is the sole breadwinner of her family working to weave carpets in the Khorasan refugee camp. She shared a story of her grandson and said, “When Khalid was born, it was very difficult for his mother to weave the carpet while his father was unable to look after the baby.

“Like the other women in the camp, I also started feeding him opium which made him fall asleep; then we were able to weave carpets to earn a few bucks,” she said.

“I reduced the dose of opium slowly which helped Khalid recover. In the earlier stage, Khalid was [eating] opium which caused him to fall asleep for five hours a day and [his] mother could earn $1.3 per day.

“He is now grown and can play outside in the street with other children in the camp; that’s why we are able to work all day and finish a carpet in two weeks,” the grandmother said. More women in the camp were reluctant to share any more information. However, Abdul Rahim, 60, an elder in the camp who belongs to Mazar-i-Sharif, stated, “Among the 14,000 Afghan refugees living in the Khorasan refugee camp, there are 70 families belonging to the Turkmen community from Afghanistan.”

The supervisor of the camp said “These 70 families have a minimum of two children each at home; these families are associated with the carpet-weaving industry. They weave carpets and then sell them in Peshawar and also export them all over the world including in the United States and Germany.

“People living in the camp are very poor and weaving carpet is the only source of their income. If the women could not give their children opium, they are unable to weave carpet. And if they fail to generate income, they fail to feed their families.”

He shed light over the living style in the camp and explained, “It is a tradition in the camp that the women earn through weaving carpets while men look after the babies in the homes.”

The camp elder believed that infants consuming opium is a “cure” to many other diseases among the children living in the camp.

Long-running addiction

To a question, he responded, “In the camp, there’s a family including a mother and two sons, who consumed opium earlier. Now the mother and the sons are the ages of 60, 40 and 30 and are still consuming opium simply because they are addicted and [do] not have money to rehabilitate.”

He refused to comment about women’s access and availability of opium in Khorasan camp while he was of the view that it’s easily available locally.

Dost Welfare Foundation has been working on drug treatment and rehabilitation since 1992 where Afghan as well as Pakistani clients are treated. The organisation has also worked in around 35 Afghan refugee camps across KP. Dr Shaista has been working as a global trainer and programme manager at the children drug treatment and rehabilitation programme of Dost Welfare Foundation in Peshawar.

“Children are vulnerable to drugs if they are living on streets, have drug users within their families, workplace with drug use practice or are children with psychological issues,” she observed.

“No specific research was carried out on the issue but children living in the camps are exposed to many threats, [and] drug addiction is among them. Due to low socio-economic background, feeding opium to the children among the carpet weavers was reported in Afghan refugee camps. But since they do not consider the negative effects of drug use a problem, they never seek treatment for it.”

To a question, she responded that children are dependent on their elders for their decisions and access to drug treatment. “Without their guardian’s consent, a child could not be treated or rehabilitated.”

She further said that among 360 children rehabilitated annually, there are children in the age bracket of 10 to 18 years while a few of them are between seven and 10.

Speaking about the impact of the drug, she elaborated that opium abuse by children will cause short-term risks such as poor balance, anxiety, depression, dizziness, drowsiness, sweating or slow reaction. “Meanwhile in the long term, they will end up as drug consumers for life and will not be able to achieve their goals, living with disruptions.”

She was of the view that consumption of drugs leads to disruptive societies with more addicts and more health issues. “There are physiological and social issues that may also lead to more crimes.” She urged the government that it was high time to establish more child-specific drug treatment and rehabilitation centres with evidence-based activities and specialised and certified professionals.

Imran Takkar, a children’s rights activist in Peshawar, said that after the war started in Afghanistan, a large number of Afghan nationals came to Pakistan bringing their practices with them into the refugee camps. “Giving opium to children is a clear violation of the children’s rights, which is condemnable. The poor literacy rate among the women living in the camps is alarming and this leads them to give opium to their children without knowing the consequences.”

He remarked that launching a mega campaign among the working mothers across the refugee camps in Pakistan to stop the menace was the need of the hour. “They need to be educated about the impact of such drugs consumed by their children.”

He commented that NGOs should rescue affected children. He stressed that the government as well as the Afghan embassy in Pakistan should also support such families financially. “The government should come forward and make a policy for the deprived children living under threat in the refugee camps across Pakistan.”

The writer is a freelance contributor based in Peshawar.

Twitter: @JawadYousufxai