GENEVA, Sept 4 (NNN-XINHUA) – Afghanistan could face a major crisis without trade and support flows, and the international community should not turn a blind eye to the situation, a UN official stressed yesterday.
Babar Baloch, speaking from Pakistan for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), told a UN briefing, the UNHCR do not see a large influx of refugees crossing Afghanistan’s borders to Pakistan and Iran, and the reasons behind this were being analysed.
In fact, a displacement crisis is taking place inside Afghanistan, the UN official said. However, it is difficult to gather information on the uncertain situation inside Afghanistan, as well as, at the borders with neighbouring countries.
Traditionally, there had always been a lot of movement of people and commercial flows between Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, Baloch explained. Currently, Afghans are still able to come through, but ID documents and visas must be shown.
According to the latest UN figures, almost half of Afghanistan’s population, or 18 million people, need humanitarian assistance, in order to survive. One in three Afghans does not know where their next meal will come from, while more than half of all children under five, are expected to become acutely malnourished next year.– NNN-XINHUA
