Crisis Looms As Thousands Of Afghans Leave Pakistan

خبر ها - افغانستان

يكشنبه 31 اسد 1395 ساعت 12:35 نوشته شده توسط TOLOnews.com

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Thousands of families who have returned from Pakistan to Afghanistan in the past month are in urgent need of assistance – and only a few have received any support so far.

In a statement issued by Country Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Afghanistan, Kate O'Rourke said: "These people are falling between the cracks. There´s an urgent need for assistance, or the consequences may be fatal."

In the past four weeks, around 60,000 unregistered refugees have returned from Pakistan to Afghanistan, according to International Organization for Migration (IOM) — a sudden increase in numbers.

But according to the NRC, these people have not been registered as refugees in Pakistan and as such are not receiving the same support as registered refugees do upon return.

Most of the returnees are heading to Nangarhar, and families NRC visited there last week are clearly struggling to survive.

"It is heart-breaking to see the situation some of the families are living under. Children appear visibly malnourished and families are lacking clean drinking water, shelter and sanitation facilities," said NRC´s Protection and Advocacy Adviser in Afghanistan Will Carter, after visiting the area.

A grandfather he spoke with in Behsud District had just returned with his family.

"My family arrived four days ago with nowhere to go, but found this compound that we share with three other families. There are 35 of us together, sleeping mostly in the open, with no drinking water close by. We don't know what to do, and have no money", said Abdul Qadir.

Between August 8 and 14, an average of more than 2,600 undocumented Afghans returned every day, according to figures from the Afghan Directorate of Refugees and Repatriation and IOM.

More than two thirds of the people arriving are children, reported the NRC. Estimates indicate that there are over one million unregistered Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

"The number of people returning has increased rapidly during the last weeks, and we fear that the crisis we are currently witnessing could only be the tip of the iceberg", said Carter.

IOM has meanwhile warned that they are only able to support a small percentage of the people who have arrived with some very basic assistance, and current stocks for even these numbers will be exhausted in a couple of months.

"The International community must come together to respond to this suffering. Humanitarian agencies urgently need to assess and respond to the needs of returnees in eastern Afghanistan and donor countries must provide the necessary funding", said O'Rourke.

Norway is reportedly ready to help Pakistan for the housing of nearly three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Recently Borge Brende, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Norway, visited Pakistan and promised to provide more aids to Pakistan.