United Nations, 31 October 2021 (TDI): At the United Nations, Pakistan has asked for urgent help to address the worsening humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan as winter approaches.
Saima Saleem, a counselor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, speaking at an interactive dialogue in the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, stated that in these conditions, it is completely unjustifiable for Afghanistan to freeze its assets abroad.
Hence, she said the increasing misery of Afghan people can provoke a substantial outflow of refugees, overcome the internal displacement and threat of terrorism.
Financial Help to Refugee-Hosting Developing Countries
Pakistani delegate emphasized the fact that Pakistan had hosted over 3.5 million Afghan refugees. Therefore, Pakistan urged developed countries to provide sustained financial help to the refugee-hosting developing countries.
“International community needs to provide adequate, predictable, regular and sustainable financial support in line with the principle of responsibility sharing for the Afghan refugees in the neighboring countries,” Saima Saleem said in a UN panel on Friday.
Similarly, she added, “Bilateral, as well as international sanctions, are affecting the humanitarian organizations’ work and have stirred the financial and banking sectors.”
Besides this, Filippo Grandi, UNHCR’s representative, gave a briefing to the committee in which he encouraged governments to learn from the forcibly displaced (82 million) people around the world, who also withheld to give up on their mission to create the world a better place to live.
“We must never forget that nobody wants to live with the anxiety of exile,” he said, illustrating UNHCR’s focus on solutions.
Appeal for Renewed International Solidarity
Grandi referred to the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention and called for renewed international solidarity.
Above all, he demanded more resources allocation and the establishment of enabling conditions for those in need. He resisted the construction of walls and outsourced asylum management to richer countries. However, he stressed that it was important to keep borders protected without jeopardizing the dignity or rights of refugees.
