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With the security situation in Pakistan posing serious obstacles, work on prospective refugee campsites in Quetta and Peshawar remained on hold for the third day in a row, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday.
In a statement released at its Geneva headquarters, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the difficult security situation in Pakistan "has drastically limited the freedom of movement of UNHCR international staff, with supplies being ferried mostly by local contractors." Despite these problems, UNHCR continues to build stockpiles of relief items in the areas bordering Afghanistan.
The agency also announced that it would resume its relief supply airlifts, which had been briefly interrupted due to airspace restrictions in the region. Up to ten airlifts are planned over the next two weeks, if security conditions permit. The flights will alternate between Copenhagen and Peshawar and Copenhagen and Quetta, the key locations where UNHCR is building relief stocks to handle any refugee influx from Afghanistan.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
