Pakistan’s great contribution in helping refugees lauded

ISLAMABAD: On World Refugee Day, representatives from renowned world bodies and various countries of the world Wednesday lauded contribution of Pakistan in hosting and helping rehabilitation of millions of refugees who have crossed into the country from war-hit neighbouring Afghanistan.

World Refugee day is commemorated every year on June 20 across the globe including Pakistan to highlight plight of those who had been forced to flee their homeland under threat of persecution, conflict and violence and also pay homage to the countries who host these refugees and work for their welfare.

Speaking at a ceremony organized by the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR here to mark the day, Ms. Roshan Khursheed, Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions of Pakistan (SAFRON) said Pakistan was trying its best to help rehabilitation of Afghan refugees.

She expressed the hope that with these efforts, the Afghan refugees would happily be settled in their homeland.

She lauded efforts of UNHCR and other organizations working for welfare of refugees, saying that the refugees were educated and were given best education and health facilities in addition to provision of self-employment trainings to them.

She said Pakistan hosted Afghan refugees, out of which 1.4 million had been registered and lauded the services of international community that came forward in helping these displace people.

She said now the repatriation has to take place and the Afghan refugees should go to settle in their own places as they were now equipped with education and skills.

Speaking on the occasion, German Ambassador to Pakistan, Martin Kobler said currently there were about 69 million refugees in the world, which was all time high.

He said the world’s one percent population was refugees and opined that this very fact calls for an immediate attention to look into this serious matter.

He said the European Union was not helping refugees in a way it was claiming, saying that nine out of ten refugees were still living in their country of origin or next door, citing example of Syria.

He said Pakistan had been bearing a lot of burden by hosting 2.5 to 3 million refugees. He thanked Pakistan on behalf of international community for providing space for these refugees.

In his statement UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi said this was a time for solidarity with refugees and with the communities that welcome them.

Grandi said conflicts emerge, recur, persist and deepen, 68.5 million people were uprooted around the world adding that taking care of refugees should be global and shared responsibility.

Other UNHCR representative, Ms Ruvendrini Menikdiwela said Pakistan had been hosting refugees for over 40 years now.

She said becoming refugee was a human tragedy and lauded the role of local communities in welcoming refugees, however urged the need to partnerships in tackling this issue.

Director UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Indrika Ratwatte said Pakistan had bio-metrically registered largest number of refugees in the world.

He lauded the services Pakistan had rendered in hosting millions of Afghan refugees and had been helping in their rehabilitation.