ISLAMABAD:Pakistan has asked the international community to support refugee host countries with timely, predictable and sector specific grant funding to alleviate their burden. This was stated by Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN Ambassador Aamir Khan at Open Arria Formula Meeting named “Meetings, Refugees and Asylum Seekers crossing borders on Land and at Sea: New Wave of Crisis”, according to a Radio Pakistan’s report.

He called for empowerment of refugees through education, skill development, and opportunities for self-reliance in host and third countries. Aamir Khan said incentivizing voluntary repatriation is the best solution and stressed for addressing root causes by prioritizing conflict resolution and humanitarian responses.

The Deputy Permanent Representative said the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan necessitates swift international assistance to prevent prospect of the influx of millions of desperate Afghans seeking refuge from hunger and starvation.

He said Pakistan, already burdened, cannot shoulder any new influx. They will have to be hosted by other members of international community. He said Pakistan is hosting 3.5 million registered and unregistered Afghans refugees for four decades, despite not being a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

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