By Our Social Services Correspondent
Oxfam yesterday called on governments and international agencies to take control of the relief programmes for Pakistani refugees in India. They affirmed that they would continue to provide aid for 500,000 refugees in five camps, but would need an extra £100,000 to finance the work over the next two months.

An Oxfam spokesman said that they were coping with only 10 per cent of the refugees in India. With no apparent hope of a political solution in Pakistan the problem could drag on for decades and become as intractable as the refugee situation in the Middle East.

“We have to do the emergency work, but this situation is beyond the scope of voluntary agencies and it is time the United Nations agencies, governments and larger groups took total responsibility.”

The money being spent by Oxfam on helping the refugees in India is diverting money from its long term development programmes in India and Pakistan. It has asked the Government for unlimited funds to help with long term work among refugees.

Oxfam’s existing commitments will cost £300,000 over the next two months, of which £200,000 is already guaranteed. A special appeal has enabled the organization to buy 10,000 saris for Pakistani women refugees whose dignity and health are endangered by their lack of alternative clothing.

Many fled from Pakistan with only the clothes they were wearing and these have become tattered and filthy. Oxfam estimates that 30,000 to 40,000 women in the five camps they are working in need an extra sari.

In addition, 50,000 children in the five areas are estimated to be in need of supplementary feeding because of malnutrition, although there is no evidence of starvation.