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In preparation for the recent high-profile, regional aid conference, the bustling city of Mazar e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan received a makeover. The wide boulevards were hosed down and police checkpoints scanned passing cars. But as plans came together for the conference, one issue was conspicuously overlooked – that of the thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Afghanistan who struggle to survive in the shadows of the city.

Over the past six months, UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, has registered over 400 families from Sayyad District in neighboring Saripul Province who have made their way to Mazar e-Sharif. These Afghans are fleeing fighting between government forces and the opposition groups that have gained control of their strategic district. At first, the refugees managed to find jobs making bricks by the thousands at factories on the city’s dusty outskirts. But with winter approaching, the factories are  shutting down, adding to the struggles of the Sayyad Afghans.

“This has been my house for the past two months, but the factory has asked us to leave,” said Shigofa, a mother of five. “It is too cold at night and my children can’t go to school.”

The many displaced have nowhere to go. Renting apartments in town are far beyond their means.  Factory owners have already ordered them to leave their temporary dwellings and the water pumps, which only bring up salt water, will soon be turned off.

One of the displaced, Farid, said he will try to remain at the factories with his extended family. “Our village is on the frontline of the fighting so we will stay here. We have no place to go and no money to rent a place. I will ask the landowner if we can stay and build something to collect rainwater for drinking.”

The children here are too far away from school  facilities to attend. Instead, they help their parents shape bricks to be used in one of Mazar e-Sharif’s glossy new buildings. Government representatives visited the families but have yet to provide any assistance.

The number of displaced in Afghanistan has spiked in the past year by half. Most of these people are trying to settle in the once stable north. Yet their needs were not even on the agenda for the aid conference in the city, which brought together top representatives from the government and the NATO-led security forces. At the national level they are similarly ignored.

The international community is currently moving towards an exit strategy of transitioning security and aid affairs to Afghan ownership. As this happens, governments and humanitarian groups must re-commit to assisting the displaced in light of the government’s weak capacity and will to respond.

“We don’t know what to do,” said Hamid. “The winter and rains will make it very difficult. We have no relatives in the area to help. Only Allah knows what will happen to us.”