Afghan neighbours wary of new refugee crisis as violence rises

ISLAMABAD • Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was set to meet regional leaders for talks in Uzbekistan yesterday as deteriorating security in his country raises fears of a new refugee crisis with neighbouring Pakistan already ruling out taking any more people.

Several million Afghans have been displaced within their country over years of war, 270,000 of them in fighting since January as US-led foreign forces have been withdrawing, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

With Taleban insurgents intent on defeating Mr Ghani's Western-backed government, Afghanistan's neighbours are on alert for refugees crossing into their countries as the fighting intensifies and living conditions deteriorate.

"The meetings in Tashkent will focus on Afghanistan's future and involve intense diplomacy," a diplomat briefed on the matter said of the two-day gathering. Decades of war have driven Afghans out of their country, most into Pakistan to the east and Iran to the west.

Pakistan is home to 1.4 million Afghan refugees while Iran hosts nearly a million, according to UN refugee agency data. But the number of undocumented Afghans in both countries is estimated to be much higher.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was visiting Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan, on Tuesday, said his country, with limited resources, could not be expected to do any more.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and top government officials from countries in the region were expected at the Tashkent meeting.

Foreign ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation met in Dushanbe this week and called for an end to violence against Afghan civilians and urged the government to strengthen its position for the sake of stability.

Last week, Tajikistan said it took in more than 1,000 civilians fleeing violence in northern Afghanistan's Badakhshan province.

Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon last week also ordered the mobilisation of 20,000 military reservists to secure its border with Afghanistan. Mr Rakhmon also called on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, whose country has a sizeable military presence in Tajikistan, to help stabilise the border with Afghanistan.

Despite Mr Qureshi's warning that Pakistan would take no more refugees, Pakistani officials in border areas have begun to identify sites that could be used for refugee camps. Pakistan shut its two main border crossings with Afghanistan last week after lawmakers were told by the military that more than 700,000 Afghans could enter in the coming months.

A humanitarian crisis could force Afghans to leave their country just as much as actual fighting. Some 18.4 million people, almost half the population, need humanitarian help, according to the UN, which has appealed for US$1.3 billion (S$1.76 billion) in funding for this year. It has received about 23 per cent of that.

Last week, the World Health Organisation warned it was struggling to get medicines and supplies into Afghanistan where facilities have come under attack and some staff have fled.

REUTERS