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About 70,000 Afghan Refugees Trickle Into Pakistan
By Aamir Latif
ISLAMABAD, Nov 6 (IslamOnline) - Despite the closure of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, more than 70,000 Afghan refugees have trickled into Pakistan, raising the total number of refugees being hosted by this country to over 2.5 million, a government spokesman told IslamOnline Tuesday.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said earlier this week that the number of refugees could be as high as 100,000.
A majority of the fresh refugees used dangerous mountain routes to enter Pakistan's tribal belt in Peshawar and Quetta cities, the Pakistani spokesman said.
He said that according to official estimates, around 50,000 refugees from different areas in Afghanistan had entered Pakistan in October following the U.S.-led airstrikes on the war-ravaged country.
"This is not the end. We are expecting hundreds of thousands others during coming months", he maintained. "Most of the refugees belong to the Afghan cities of Kandahar, Kabul, Jalalabad, Kundoes, Herat and Ghazni."
He said the government had asked the UNHCR to finalize its planning for setting up 15 new camps at Chaman and Torkhum border to facilitate the newcomers.
Sources in the UNHCR told IslamOnline that the relief goods, which had been sent by different Western and Arab countries, were not being distributed among the refugees. The UNHCR and the Pakistani government reportedly disagree over which organization should be given the respective responsibility.
The tug of war between the two sides, is causing serious difficulties for the refugees who desperately need blankets and warm clothes as the infamously savage Afghan winter sets, sources added.
Although a majority of the new refugees entered Pakistan illegally, the government had started their registration, a government spokesman said. However, he added, the government was facing serious difficulties in coping with the food, medicine and other essential needs.
Pakistan has been making continuous appeals to the international community to help it deal with the latest influx of refugees.
The state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan - quoting an official survey -reports that Pakistan has been hosting around 3 million Afghan refugees since 1979. The figures do not include those Afghans who live outside the refugee camps.
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