ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: The Northern Areas and Kashmir Affairs minister, Abbas Sarfaraz Khan, has said camps for Afghan refugees should start functioning immediately with all the basic facilities like shelter, food, water, and medical.

He was presiding over the second meeting of culture coordination committee (CCC) for supervision of Afghan relief efforts on Friday.

The minister asked the UN agencies, the NWFP and Balochistan authorities to immediately initiate shifting the refugees to new camps. He also asked the representatives of the NWFP government to resolve all the issues regrading setting up of the camps including relocation of sites, UN agencies’ security concerns about proposed locations in tribal areas and mechanism of shifting.

He called for establishing the refugees camps in Afghanistan shortly after security clearance was obtained and other related atters resolved. The UN team, he added, should go to Kabul and other parts of the country within next few days to evaluate the functioning of these camps.

The UNHCR representative raised security issues in tribal areas and other related matters with the NWFP government. The meeting was informed that the refugee camps in Bajour and Kurram agency were already equipped with basic facilities and shifting would start from Monday.

The WFP representatives also briefed the meeting on the supply of food to various areas of Afghanistan. He said they had sufficient food stock in Afghanistan to meet any shortfall due to current situation, which was hoped to be improved within next 24 hours

The representatives of Edhi Foundation and other relief organizations also briefed the meeting on their relief operations in the war-ravaged country.