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Pakistan calls for assistance for refugees
Pakistan needs financial assistance for the 3.1 million Afghan refugees it is hosting for the last two decades, a Pakistan government official said Tuesday.
Pakistan needs financial assistance for the 3.1 million Afghan refugees it is hosting for the last two decades, a Pakistan government official said Tuesday.
''We do not want donors only to help us in assisting new arrivals but also should lessen Pakistan's sufferings because of 3.1 million old afghan refugees in the country,'' Asif Shah told reporters in Islamabad. Shah heads Pakistan's commissioner for Afghan refugees.
He said Pakistan has not been assisted since 1995 despite more than three million refugees burdening its weak economy. Shah ruled out Pakistan might change its policy and grant citizenship to the Afghans who have been living for on its soil for more than two decades.
''We hope these refugees will go back as soon as peace and stability comes in Afghanistan,'' he said.
Expressing his satisfaction over the aid for new refugees, Shah said 12 new camps have been set up in Pakistan's tribal areas in the Northwestern Frontier and Balochistan provinces. The refugee official ruled out security concern regarding the presence of non-Pashtun Afghan refugees in Pashtun-populated tribal areas of Pakistan.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) had alarmed at the rising tension between tribesmen and non-Pashtun Afghan refugees because of the killing of Pakistani Taliban fighters in a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan.
Hundreds of Pakistanis from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan had crossed over into the embattled country to fight along the Taliban. ''No such sentiments exist in tribal areas. If and when such sentiments arise we will be able to counter them,'' Shah said, commenting on the reports of resentment against non-Pashtun Afghan refugees living in the areas dominated by the ethnic Pakistani tribal Pashtuns.
Bureau Report
He said Pakistan has not been assisted since 1995 despite more than three million refugees burdening its weak economy. Shah ruled out Pakistan might change its policy and grant citizenship to the Afghans who have been living for on its soil for more than two decades.
''We hope these refugees will go back as soon as peace and stability comes in Afghanistan,'' he said.
Expressing his satisfaction over the aid for new refugees, Shah said 12 new camps have been set up in Pakistan's tribal areas in the Northwestern Frontier and Balochistan provinces. The refugee official ruled out security concern regarding the presence of non-Pashtun Afghan refugees in Pashtun-populated tribal areas of Pakistan.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) had alarmed at the rising tension between tribesmen and non-Pashtun Afghan refugees because of the killing of Pakistani Taliban fighters in a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan.
Hundreds of Pakistanis from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan had crossed over into the embattled country to fight along the Taliban. ''No such sentiments exist in tribal areas. If and when such sentiments arise we will be able to counter them,'' Shah said, commenting on the reports of resentment against non-Pashtun Afghan refugees living in the areas dominated by the ethnic Pakistani tribal Pashtuns.
Bureau Report