Kurds storm UNHCR office

Pakistani police used teargas on Tuesday to disperse Kurdish demonstrators at UNHCR’s offices in Islamabad after negotiations with the group broke down. UNHCR spokesman Yusuf Hassan told IRIN on Wednesday that a large group of Iraqi and Iranian Kurds, estimated to be about 150 and comprised of men, women and children, forced their way into the UNHCR complex, occupied several rooms, ransacked the office and took at least one person hostage, after their attempts to secure refugee status from the UN agency failed. “The building was surrounded inside and out,” Hassan said. “Only after police used force and teargas did they surrender. Although it was a terrible day for us, it is great relief to us that staff members were released unharmed,” he added. Tuesday’s protest came after some 74 Iranian Kurds had their requests for refugee status denied by the UNHCR. “Most of these people’s cases have been rejected, reviewed again under appeal, and found to have no grounds for [granting them] refugee status,” Hassan said. The three UNHCR offices in Pakistan deal with one of the largest refugee crises in the world. An estimated 1.2 million Afghan refugees live in Pakistan today, in addition to some 2,500 other refugees from Iran, Iraq and Somalia.