Pak. readies for more refugee influx

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, OCT. 11. Pakistan, already hosting an estimated 2.5 million Afghan refugees, has begun planning the placement of additional refugees in new camps in the Northwest Frontier Province, an area that could be hostile to both the refugees and relief workers.

While a spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Office categorically ruled out the possibility of opening its borders to allow in new refugees, the Refugees International has claimed it had designated dozens of potential refugee camp sites in the tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan, both north and south of Peshawar.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and non- governmental organisations (NGOs) are preparing 20 camp sites with a capacity of 200,000 refugees for habitation in two weeks. Although Pakistan's border remains closed to new Afghan refugees, planning and preparation for a refugee influx continues.

The Refugee International said the aid agencies were encountering security problems as they attempted to prepare the sites. In the last several days, three NGOs have been robbed and vandalised and the UNHCR had its access to camp sites blocked by anti-refugee demonstrators from the local population. It said the region and many of the same sites were used as refugee camps in the 1980s. The local population was friendly to the refugees and the relief agencies then. After years of housing refugees, that goodwill seems to have dried up. Not only are the proposed camps potentially dangerous, but many are also difficult to reach and lack water supply.

``Moreover, there are fears among relief workers that many of the local people are - and many of the potential refugees will be - Taliban supporters, hostile to relief agencies and possibly armed. In the tribal areas, disarming refugees and policing refugee camps will be a hazardous and difficult task,'' the agency said in a statement.

It said thus far, there is no evidence that the U.S. and the U.K. military strikes in Afghanistan have forced large numbers of Afghans to flee towards Pakistan. Nevertheless, it is prudent to prepare for a refugee crisis, which might also be generated by hunger, if suspended international food deliveries cannot be resumed in sufficient quantities.

The potential number of Afghans who might seek refuge in Pakistan could go up to one million, according to the UNHCR's ``worst case'' scenario. The security problems facing the relief agencies raise doubts that the refugees and relief workers could live and work safely in the tribal areas of the NWFP. If the refugees suffer as they seek and gain refuge in Pakistan, international support for the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism would dissipate and refugee lives will be at risk.

The agency has recommended that Pakistan immediately designate potential sites for refugees further from the Afghan border and outside the tribal areas.

A spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Office told a news conference here that while the policy of closing the border along with Afghanistan remains unchanged, the Musharraf Government was prepared to review it if the situation demanded.

Pakistan has all along been arguing with the U.N. and other international relief agencies working in Afghanistan on the need for relief and rehabilitation measures within the country to ensure there is no refugee influx into the neighbouring countries.

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Section  : International
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