- Title: PAKISTAN: UNHCR MOVES AFGHAN REFUGEES TO PERMANENT CAMP.
- Date: 11th November 2001
- Summary: (W4)CHAMAN, PAKISTAN (NOVEMBER 11, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: MAKESHIFT CAMP 0.05 2. MV/GV: PEOPLE LOADING BELONGINGS ONTO TRUCKS (2 SHOTS) 0.15 3. LV: MORE VIEWS OF MAKESHIFT CAMP 0.20 4. GV: VARIOUS VIEWS OF TRUCKS BEING LOADED (2 SHOTS) 0.31 5. MV: UNHCR OFFICIAL REGISTERING REFUGEES 0.37 6. GV: MORE VIE
- Embargoed: 26th November 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CHAMAN, PAKISTAN
- Country: Pakistan
- Reuters ID: LVA36K9M7MRE72UN795EO7BHQXP7
- Story Text: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) refugee agency, has begun moving Afghan refugees from
a temporary staging post at the Afghan-Pakistan border to a
permanent camp.
Fifty families consisting of a total of 244 people
were taken out of the Killo Faizo staging post at the Chaman
border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Sunday
(November 11), after Pakistani authorities gave approval for
the move following days of negotiation.
"Today, we are shifting 50 families. We have thousands more
people in Killo Faizo waiting to be moved out of the border
zone and further from the frontier so they can be safer," said
UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler.
About 3,000 Afghans have been registered at Killo Faizo
since the United States began bombing Afghanistan on October 7
to punish the Taliban for harbouring Saudi militant Osama bin
Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11
attacks on New York and Washington.
Pakistan has closed its borders to all but the most
vulnerable -- children, the old and civilian casualties of the
war.
Kessler said the UNHCR is hopeful that Pakistan will
continue to allow more refugees inside the country.
"All the countries bordering Afghanistan have closed their
camps. We had a very difficult time persuading Pakistan to
allow these sites to be opened but we hope the Pakistan
authorities will continue to be flexible and to allow the
thousands of Afghans fleeing for safety to come to sites like
these and others," Kessler said.
Expecting a flood of Afghans seeking refuge, the United
Nations has established several new refugee camps in Pakistan
and other neighbouring countries.
But until the authorities allowed the UNHCR to begin
transferring families from Killo Faizo to one of the permanent
camps, Roghani, the new sites in Pakistan remained empty.
Kessler said the UNHCR intended to move around 100
families a day from Killo Faizo to Roghani, to create space
for possible new arrivals.
He said it was important for the safety of the refugees
that they be taken out of Killo Faizo, which stretches along
the barbed wire of the frontier with Afghanistan.
Kessler said Taliban agitators had been entering Killo
Faizo at night, telling Afghans that if they were good
Muslims, they would go back to Taliban-run camps across the
border.
The UNHCR says it believes at least 135,000 refugees have
fled the fighting at home for shelter in Pakistan. Most stay
with relatives and only a small fraction have entered the
refugee camps.
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