American plans for air drops of aid are "virtually useless" as a strategy to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis within Afghanistan, leading British aid agencies warned Sunday.
Instead the US and Britain should assign clear corridors on the ground and ensure safe passage for aid to flow in and for refugees to return home without any danger of being hit by air strikes, senior aid workers said.
Pakistan and other neighboring countries must also be persuaded to reopen their borders to refugees if disaster is to be averted.
Will Day, chief executive of Care International, said: "Air drops make great TV but they often represent a failure to respond to a food crisis."
Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's director, said all aid should be channelled through the UN "to be seen as impartial and separate from military action.
"Trucking of food is cheaper and is tried and tested. Air drops are risky, random, expensive, and likely to meet only a fraction of the need. Aid workers would be put in a difficult position if food aid came to be viewed as part of a military effort."
Most of Britain's aid agencies believe that the threat of military action against Afghanistan has greatly exacerbated the country's humanitarian crisis, although most organizations were unwilling to comment on the wisdom of military action because of their non-political status.
All of the dozen agencies contacted on Sunday wanted Afghanistan's borders to be reopened immediately.
Secure conditions are essential for the transport of supplies, they said, which means open borders and agreement by those inside and outside the country that aid convoys would move unmolested.
"Any offensive military action or threat of military action makes it impossible to deliver these conditions," said Christian Aid director Daleep Mukarjee.
"The most vital need is to prevent people becoming refugees by getting humanitarian aid to their home areas and remove the fear of conflict which is combining with hunger to drive people from their homes."
Every agency was keen to separate humanitarian aid from military activities, arguing that provision of aid is not a job for armies and air forces during a conflict.
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