Pakistan, U.N. Sign Key Deal on Afghan Refugees

08/04/2001| IslamWeb

ISLAMABAD (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Pakistan and the U.N. refugee agency signed a key agreement on Thursday on how to determine the status of an estimated 180,000 Afghans languishing in squalid camps in northwestern Pakistan.(Read photo caption below)
Pakistan hosts around two million Afghan refugees who have arrived over the past 23 years, mostly grouped in camps and villages in its North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan.
But Islamabad has been particularly worried by an influx of up to 200,000 Afghans since the middle of last year, fleeing a three-year drought and long conflict. In November Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan were officially sealed to new arrivals.
Safdar Javed Syed, Pakistan's Additional Secretary for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, said Islamabad was pleased with the agreement and the screening of around 180,000 Afghans in three camps near Peshawar, the NWFP capital, would begin almost immediately.
Refugees rejected in the screening process, including economic migrants, would be returned to Afghanistan.
No figures were offered on how many people could end up being returned to Afghanistan.

PHOTO CAPTION:
Safdar Javed, left, senior official of Pakistan's government, exchanges copies of agreement with Hasim Utkan, representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2001 in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan signed the agreement with the U.N. to accept new refugees fleeing war-and-drought shattered Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Tariq Aziz)