UNITED NTIONS: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has reminded the world that for nearly four decades, Pakistan has served as a generous host to millions of Afghan refugees.

In his address to a high-level meeting on large scale movement of refugees and migrants on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Mr Sharif reminded the international community that this was the largest protracted refugee situation in the world.

“Even today, we are hosting over 2.5 million Afghan refugees,” he said.

“While financial support from the international community has waned, Pakistan’s hospitality has not.”

The prime minister said that Pakistan supported the safe and dignified return of all Afghan refugees to their homeland in a sustainable manner.

To achieve this objective, he said, Pakistan “counts on the active support of our Afghan brothers and international partners in creating a conducive environment to achieve this outcome”.

“We hope that the international community will step forward and provide necessary resources to UNHCR in a timely manner to support the sustainable return and reintegration of the Afghan refugees.”

The prime minister noted that the number of people forcibly displaced from their homes had now reached a record high and human suffering at an unprecedented level.

Much of the displacement had neither been voluntary nor orderly as people had been fleeing from desperate conditions of conflict, war or poverty, said Mr Sharif, adding that these “hapless people on the move deserve compassion and humane treatment”.

The prime minister said the large influx of refugees and migrants to Europe had brought renewed focus to their plight but the true scale of this crisis lay beyond these headlines.

“It is the developing countries, including Pakistan, that continue to be at the forefront of bearing the burden of large-scale global human displacements,” Mr Sharif said.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2016