OPIUM PACIFIES AFGHAN REFUGEE CHILDREN

Children growing up in refugee camps in Peshawar, in the north of
Pakistan, are being drugged by their parents to leave themselves free
to work undisturbed in the carpet factories.

The Afghan men and women, eager to not lose out on the sole source of
income in the camps, dip their fingers in a pot of opium to feed their
children before a day's work.

"I know this is very dangerous and can have bad effects on the health
of our children, but how can we abandon carpet weaving as this is our
only source of income?" said Mallaley, one of the women carpet weavers.

She said that her husband left for Afghanistan a week before to repair
their home destroyed by decades long war and fighting.

"We are not happy in Pakistan and want to shift to our homeland," she
said.

"In absence of my husband we have no other option to work in a carpet
unit for survival and to feed our family and children," she said.

"Opium eating keep us impetus to work more and avoid getting
bored."

Parent Users

The refugee camps in Peshawar were mostly set up for hundreds of
fleeing Afghan families in the 1980s after the former USSR invaded
Afghanistan.

Afghan refugee Altaf Khan, who has been living in the camp since 1983,
says the use of opium is reluctant but it stops the children going out
and begging on the streets.

He said 90% of the 1,800 refugees in Khurasan refugee camp work in
carpet knitting.

"Most of them are men and women who either work on lease or have
established their own small units inside their houses," he said.

Carpet weaving is slow and time-consuming work.

An average carpet is prepared in a month or longer, even with two or
three weavers working a rotation of eight hour shifts.

The men and women are paid between $30 and $40 for knitting one metre
of carpet. It is hard for someone to weave that length in a week even
working every day from early morning till evening without any break.

"Both women and men are involved in taking drug during working hours
as it increases ability to work more," said Abdul Rub, an ethnic
Pashtoon who is also Commandant of the camp.

Treatment

He said that 60% of the Turkmen who are connected with weaving
business in the camp have been addicted to opium and it is not
considered harmful as father and son eat it together.

"The addicts used to bring opium from Afghanistan where it is easily
available, but it can be obtained from Pakistani cities as opium
poppies are still produced in tribal territories bordering with
Afghanistan," Mr Rub added.

There is little intervention from the authorities to stop the cycle of
opium addiction in the camps.

But some weavers are showing signs of concern.

Afghan refugee Meer Muhammad, 35, who runs a small carpet-weaving
unit, said: "We are anxious about the future of our young people, but
why would we opt for opium eating if there was peace in our own country?"

However, Mr Muhammad admitted he was already addicted to opium when he
migrated to Pakistan along with his family in 1980.

"When you eat opium, you don't become tired, and you can work late
into the night," he said.

There are few non-governmental organisations (NGO) or other welfare
institutions working to help rehabilitate addicts in the Khurasan camp
or in other parts of Peshawar.

Afghan doctor Tariq Suleman runs the Nijat Centre for the treatment of
opium-affected patients which is 10 kilometres from the camp.

"We are trying our utmost to work for rehabilitation of addicted
Afghans but the menace cannot be eradicated completely unless there is
a planned program for controlling opium production in Afghanistan and
Pakistan," he said.