Wednesday, February 29, 2012

‘One million unregistered Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan’

Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), Engineer Shaukat Ullah said that 1.7 million registered and one million unregistered Afghan refugees are residing in Pakistan. The Minister was giving a briefing to the members of diplomatic community and humanitarian organisation, to discuss the critical issue of support to Afghan refugees, host countries and Afghanistan.

He said three hundred thousand whose registration cards have yet to be renewed and valid for by the end of this year 2012, says a press release here.

Most of these three million people continue to live in conditions which are below poverty levels in regions acknowledged as backward with severe economic constraints.

In terms of international support, the maximum provided in 1981-82 was US$ 293.1 million for 3.2 million Afghan refugees.

The Afghan refugees received considerable support from friendly countries including Saudi Arabia, USA, Germany, Japan, Italy, UAE in addition to assistance from UN Agencies, mainly, UNHCR and World Food Programme, WHO and UNICEF.

No comments: