ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: Pakistan has suspended registration at the Killi Faizo refugee camp near Chaman as it has been filled to capacity by the newly arrived Afghan refugees.

In a press release on Wednesday, the UNHCR said the Killi Faizo camp was designed to accommodate a maximum of 325 families but the total number accepted into the camp since it opened a week ago was 384 families — 1,897 individuals, including 1,265 children. On Tuesday, a further 116 families (540 individuals) were registered at Killi Faizo.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said that after the refugees exceeded the capacity, further registration of new arrivals was suspended by the local authorities. “A sign was posted overnight at Killi Faizo in three languages, saying there will be no further registration of new arrivals and they (refugees) should go back across the border to Spin Boldak.”

UNHCR is currently negotiating with the local authorities to open up another site nearby as a matter of utmost urgency.

Meanwhile, UNHCR spokesperson Peter Kessler told a news conference that health situation was deteriorating in the refugee camp as many cases of severely sick or malnourished people were coming forth.

He said the people who managed to cross over had tales of misery to narrate. “A woman with a fractured arm arrived in the camp and said it was the result of aerial bombardment.”

Many other Afghans said that they had fled because of bombing and one 60-year-old man reported that he had lost his entire eight-member family when his house was destroyed in US air attacks, Mr Kessler said.

According to a UNHCR press release, Afghan refugees arriving in Killi Faizo said that the health situation in the makeshift Taliban-controlled camp at Spin Boldak inside Afghanistan was deteriorating rapidly.

UNHCR medical workers said the individuals who passed through the Spin Boldak camp on their way to Pakistan reported cases of severe malnutrition as well as dysentery among children. The camp’s population is estimated at 3,000 (700 families). At least, 100 families at the Spin Boldak site are reported to be sleeping in the open without any aid at all.

The refugees alleged that the Taliban were preventing people from leaving Afghanistan, including those in need of medical attention, the UNHCR claimed.