UNHCR grants refugee status to 60 Afghans

NEW DELHI, NOV. 23. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) here has granted refugee status to as many as 60 Afghan nationals, who trickled in after the September 11 attacks in the U.S.

``Since the WTC disaster and the strikes in Afghanistan, 13 families, consisting of 70 persons from Afghanistan have approached the UNHCR office here to be recognised as refugees. Of these 11 families have been given refugee status and others are in the process of being interviewed,'' the UNHCR said in a statement today. Most of these people were of Sikh faith, it said.

The UNHCR said according to the Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society, an Afghan refugee association, there were 42 Afghan nationals with valid visas and another 354 nationals without valid visas still in Pakistan, who were expected to seek refugee status in India.

Afghan arrested

The Delhi police arrested an Afghan national, Hayatullah Jabser, who tried to commit suicide outside the office of the UNHCR here after being frustrated over the delay in his resettlement in a third country. Hayatullah tried to kill himself by inflicting injuries on himself with a blade on November 20.

After interventions from the UNHCR, Hayatullah and his family have been accepted for resettlement in Norway and the information was conveyed to him, the statement said. In the normal course, once a refugee has been granted resettlement in an Scandinavian country, it takes up to six months for all formalities to be completed, the UNHCR said.

- PTI

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