Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UN appeals for $250m for Afghan refugee crisis

Raymond Whitaker
Wednesday 26 September 2001 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The UN refugee agency today appealed for $252 million to care for Afghans in the face of any US retaliatory strikes against the hide–out of Osama bin Laden.

"Today we are witnessing an unprecedented global effort to combat terrorism," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers. "We need a similar unique effort to deal with possible humanitarian consequences of whatever happens in Afghanistan.

UNHCR officials fear than any action in Afghanistan could send up to 1.5 million people fleeing toward neighbouring countries, Mr Lubbers told a meeting in Geneva.

It could be the largest flight of refugees since Serbian forces drove hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from their homes in Kosovo during NATO's 1999 air war against Yugoslavia, the agency said.

UNHCR planners expect that at worst up to one million Afghans will cross the border into Pakistan, 400,000 into Iran and 50,000 each into Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

The agency needs the money over the next six months to be able to build refugee camps, including 80,000 tents and other relief supplies. Much of it would have to be airlifted in Pakistan and Iran.

The United Nations has been supporting 5 million Afghans left hungry and displaced inside their country by decades of war and three years of severe drought.

So far, only a trickle of people have succeeded in getting through to Pakistan and Iran. With the two countries already looking after nearly four million Afghan refugees, some of whom have been in camps for more than a decade, both have closed their borders.

Tensions are particularly high in Pakistan, which fears an influx of refugees will increase unrest among Pashtun tribes. They share a common ethnic background with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban. Pakistan-based groups linked to the Taliban said they had sent fighters to Baluchistan province, bordering the Taliban heartland in southern Afghanistan, to defend it against any American attempt at invasion.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is urging Pakistan and Iran to let in the refugees, and is seeking to establish nearly 100 new camps in Pakistan's border areas. UNHCR officials in Quetta, Baluchistan's capital, secured agreement for the border at Chaman, three hours away, to be reopened, but Pakistani authorities rescinded the decision after a rocket-launcher was found in a car crossing from Afghanistan. This heightened fears that Taliban agents might be seeking to infiltrate the area in the midst of refugees, and the UNHCR said it could not get a date for the reopening.

Aid agencies fear that conditions are worsening among refugees bottled up at the border. According to the UNHCR, up to 20,000 are on the Afghan side of the Chaman crossing, of whom roughly half are living in the open in searing temperatures.

Ross Mountain, the head of UN humanitarian co-ordination in Geneva, said Afghans who made it to the squalid refugee camps neighbouring their country would probably be "the lucky ones", leaving behind millions of weakened people with little food.

"Our concern right now is how we are going to reach those who are locked inside Afghanistan," Mr Mountain said. In the worst case, those needing UN help could increase by half to 7.5 million.

Six UN agencies warned that many of those already at risk were women and children "with a fragile grip on survival". Relief efforts have been disrupted by the withdrawal of foreign aid workers and a Taliban crackdown on local staff using satellite phones to keep in touch with their agencies. In Kandahar, the Taliban seized 1,400 tons of food stocks held by the World Food Programme.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in