October 28, 2001	Sunday	Shaba'an 10, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

QUETTA, Oct 27: The head of the United Nations refugee agency on Saturday announced the opening of 15 new camps in Pakistan for Afghans fleeing their country because of US-led military strikes.

Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters in Quetta that these camps are located in the Northwest Frontier and Balochistan provinces and would receive new refugees.

The UNHCR officials later said these camps could immediately take more than 50,000 Afghans who had already illegally entered Pakistan because of the military strikes but could accommodate up to 150,000 people.

“Today I can say that 15 of these locations are ready which is good,” Mr Lubbers said in a brief talk to reporters at his hotel. “So they go open. This means that people coming in illegally through the roads have at least the possibility to report there and get assistance and protection there.”

UNHCR officials said Lubbers, who is a former Dutch prime minister, will urge Pakistani authorities in their talks in Islamabad on Sunday to let the Afghans who had already arrived in the country to “make their way to the new camps”.

Pakistan already has more than three million Afghan refugees and has closed its borders for any more Afghans coming without travel documents. But it has been admitting vulnerable people such as women without male supporters, very old people, disabled and children.

Mr Lubbers arrived in Quetta earlier on Saturday at the start of a seven-day trip that will also take him to Iran for a first-hand look at his agency’s state of readiness for a possible large-scale influx of Afghans.

The UNHCR has appealed to Afghanistan’s neighbours to open their borders for Afghans who might flee because of the military strikes, which began on Oct 7 to flush out Osama bin Laden and his followers sheltered by the country’s Taliban rulers.

Mr Lubbers said he expected Pakistani authorities would be more flexible to accommodate more Afghans.

He did not like the establishment of a Taliban-run refugee camp recently set up at Spinboldak on the Afghan side of the border, saying this could be militarized by armed elements and put its residents at the risk of military strikes.

Mr Lubbers, who toured some urban refugee areas and UNHCR warehouse in Quetta on Saturday, is due to drive on Sunday to the border point of Chaman, where hundreds — some times thousands — of Afghans arrive daily to try to cross into Pakistan.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, will meet President Pervez Musharraf on Sunday, adds our staff reporter from Islamabad.

Ruud Lubbers, former Dutch prime minister, arrived in Islamabad on Saturday and immediately left for Quetta to meet the Balochistan governor and the chief secretary.

UNHCR spokesperson Peter Kessler said the high commissioner had visited refugees and a UNHCR warehouse in Quetta.

Mr Lubbers had also visited the Killi Faizo refugee camp, two kilometres inside the Pakistan border, the spokesperson said, adding that he was scheduled to leave for Iran on Wednesday.