Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf has said that Pakistan is not in position to let in more refugees from Afghanistan as violence in the war-battered country is deteriorating.
As war between the Taliban and Afghan government Forces is in its worst stance ever in the past 20 years and the Taliban fighters are widening their territory on daily bases, fears from another flow of Afghan refugees similarly increase in the region particularly in Pakistan.
NSA of Pakistan Moeed Yusuf in his interview with VOA said that the country is willing but is not in position to accept more asylum seekers from Afghanistan. Yusuf asked International Forces and United Nations to step in and make arrangements for the Afghan people inside Afghanistan.
He also recommended that in such situation the United Nations High Council for Refugees, UNHCR, should set up camps for Afghan refugees on the Afghan border sides.
Earlier, Pakistan’s foreign affairs minister Shah Mahmoud Quraishi had also expressed concern that not only Pakistan but Iran will also be facing flow of refugees in case civil war erupts in Afghanistan.
Iranian officials have not yet expressed their remarks over potential flood of Afghan refugees.
As per UN, there are currently close to 3 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan since 1980s. Half of them are unregistered.
