Two recent MSF surveys among people displaced from Chechnya show that the living conditions for the vast majority are deplorable.

MSF teams interviewed two groups: 408 heads of families from 41 tented camps and collective centres and 36 administrators of settlements; and 105 heads of families who live with host families in the northwestern city of Malgobeck.

There are over 150,000 Chechen displaced people in Ingushetia. More than half of the displaced people living with host families do not have not enough living space per person at their disposal. More than half of the same population have had to move, most of them because the rooms were "too expensive".

In the camps and the collective centres, over 80% of the inhabitants have to share a latrine with 20 others which is the internationally recognized maximum.

At the tent camp in Nazran, 430 people share one shower. Half of the displaced people share one shower with 200 others. Although there is no recognised single maximum per shower, figures go as high as only 50 people per shower.

More than half of the displaced persons have leaking roofs or are living in leaking tents.

The displaced Chechens are afraid to return to Chechnya since the situation there is still unsafe. This year a small amount of displaced even came to Ingushetia.

MSF provides direct contact to field projects

MSF runs a project for psycho-social assistance and distribution of drugs in Ingushetia. National staff members from Ingushetia have been travelling up and down to Chechnya over the past weeks to do an assessment into the existing health structures. Until recently medics from Chechnya drove to the Ingushetia border for hand overs of medicines.

With MSF staff members now traveling into Chechnya to conduct distribution, staff members in the field are better able to check the hospitals and health centres and ensure adequate distribution of supplies and better determine future needs. This will also assist in the monitoring and diagnosis of both the situation and conditions faced.

MSF is also setting up a programme in Ingushetia for tuberculosis patients from Chechnya.