PESHAWAR, Oct 8: The United Nations High Commission for Refugees on Sunday asked the Pakistan government to provide additional security cover to enable it to carry out infrastructure development at the new sites in the tribal areas after briefly suspending its operation.

A senior government official told Dawn the UNHCR suspended its operation briefly over security concerns. “We have been asking them not to suspend their operation. ‘What will happen to the Afghan refugees if the situation changes?’ On Saturday, they came up and said they were suspending their operations in the tribal area for security reasons”, the official said.

He said that the NWFP home and tribal affairs department had conveyed its willingness to provide additional security cover to enable the UNHCR staff to work peacefully. “The government said that it would double the security cover,” the official said. But the UNHCR mission, which was supposed to go to Khyber Agency on Sunday did not do so and cancelled its trip, the official said.

The UNHCR, however, later changed its decision and sent a letter to the commissioner for Afghan refugee informing him of its decision to resume its operation in the tribal areas and asked for additional security measures. “We are now asking the home & tribal affairs department to make arrangements accordingly,” the government official said. He said that the UNHCR had asked for security cover to its two missions which would visit Khyber and Kurram Agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata).

The UNHCR is setting up 73 refugee camps eight kilometres inside the Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the first six sites (five in Kurram and one in Khyber Agency) will be ready in 10 days, a UNHCR press release said. Together, the sites will be able to accommodate 60,000 people. “Aid workers are working round the clock to ensure that the sites have road access and that water and sanitation systems are either rehabilitated or newly installed”, the press release said.

It said that preparations at the 14 other sites in the NWFP had begun and should be completed in a fortnight. The 20 sites, when ready, would be able to receive up to 200,000 refugees. “The UNHCR staff who visited the site at Khyber, close to the border, said they had not seen any sign of population movements towards Pakistan.

Government and UNHCR officials, however, were unable to say how many refugees had arrived in Pakistan since last month. “It is very difficult to say,” said commissioner for Afghan refugees, Naeem Khan. “The main border is closed and those who come through unfrequented routes through the mountains do not report to us. They have either mixed up with the refugee population in the existing refugee camps or moved in with their relatives.”

A UNHCR official said they had no idea how many refugees had managed to come to Pakistan in the wake of war threats by the US. “We have no idea,” said one UNHCR official. “Some people suggest the number could be somewhere close to 10,000,” he said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Rudd Lubbers last week said the world body for refugees had a contingency plan for a worst- case scenario in which up to 1.5 million Afghans could flee to neighbouring states. “I hope a way will be found in the fight against terrorism to function in such a way in Afghanistan that it does not push big numbers out,” he told reporters in Geneva last week. “It has to be selective,” he said.

Pakistan is already home to an estimated 2.5 million Afghan refugees, 1.2 million of whom live in the NWFP.