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Afghan refugees an economic burden, official says

Afghan refugees in Pakistan have become a “back-breaking economic burden” which Pakistan should not have to bear alone, a Pakistani official for Afghanistan told IRIN on Tuesday. The official, Aziz Khan, was speaking after the Pakistan interior ministry announced last week that it had ordered the closure of entry points along the country’s western border with Afghanistan. The government claimed an inability to absorb some 30,000 refugees who had arrived in the past two months, as well as thousands more expected to seek refuge in the coming weeks. Khan told IRIN that the refugees should be assisted by international agencies working inside Afghanistan and additional camps should be established to accommodate them there. He said that most of the new arrivals were “economic refugees” affected by drought, unemployment and food shortages and attracted to Pakistan by prospects of work. The daily wage of a labourer in Pakistan is 50-60 rupees (roughly US $1), while Afghan men are working for half that. Khan said that with large areas of Afghanistan enjoying relative peace and not affected by fighting between the ruling Taliban movement and the Northern Alliance, it would be possible to host the Afghan people in their own country. “The fighting is 400-500 km from Pakistan yet the refugees cross some of the most difficult country to get here,” he said. “It would be much easier if they were able to cross over to Tajikistan. However the border is closed there.” Khan added it would be “very easy” to settle the refugees around the Afghan capital, Kabul, “where there is peace now”. “It is unfair to expect Pakistan to be solely responsible for looking after the refugees,” he pointed out. Roy Herrmann, the UNHCR spokesman in Peshawar which hosts most of the Afghan refugees, told IRIN that negotiations with the Pakistan government over the border issue were continuing. “We are trying to establish contacts at a senior level in the government to break the impasse and get them to reconsider,” he said. UNHCR estimates there are 1.2 million Afghans in Pakistan but the government puts the figure at almost two million. Of UNHCR’s global budget, only 1.7 percent was available for operations in Pakistan. So far this year, only half of the UNHCR’s annual budget of US $43 million for Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran has been received.

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

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