Afghan refugees' plight: Pak. appeals for urgent aid

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 10. Pakistan's Foreign Secretary, Mr. Inam Ul Haque on Friday briefed the heads of missions of member-countries of the Afghan Support Group and representatives of international humanitarian agencies based here about the Afghan crisis and the increased influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan.

Referring to the recent deaths in refugee camps, Mr. Haque said if timely relief was not rushed to Afghanistan, many more such deaths could occur.

Last week, on the night of January 29 alone, 115 people died of extreme cold in a camp in Herat. The Pakistani Foreign Secretary told the envoys that the situation in Afghanistan had been deteriorating for the last couple of years mainly due to the unprecedented drought, internal strife and destruction of physical infrastructure.

According to U.N. estimates, half a million Afghans have left their homes in the past few months. The grim situation in Afghanistan appears to have worsened after the U.N. imposed fresh sanctions in the third week of January.

The magnitude of the problem is reflected in the increasing number of Afghans on the Pakistan border wanting to cross over.

According to Mr. Haque, since September last, an estimated 1.5 lakh refugees have arrived in Pakistan in addition to the nearly two million already here.

Alarmed at the continuous inflow of refugees, Pakistan's military ruler and Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, appealed to the United Nations to launch a programme to provide relief assistance inside Afghanistan.

Mr. Haque said the refugee influx had strained the limited resources of Pakistan. The condition of millions of people in Afghanistan was so pathetic that even the World Bank deemed it necessary to take note of it and appealed to the world community to do some thing to mitigate their plight.

``It is very frustrating for me to watch this terrible situation develop without a mandate to respond. Although the World Bank is not a relief agency, I want to add our voice to the many that are speaking about this tragic situation,'' Mr. Johan Wall, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan said in a press statement.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Labour fumes over Mandelson 'fightback'
Next     : Tories also 'sponsored' application