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Thursday,
September 27, 2001
U.N.
agency asks for $252 million in aid
Associated Press
GENEVA
— The U.N. refugee agency said a U.S. assault on Afghanistan
could send up to 1.5 million Afghans fleeing into neighboring
countries and appealed Wednesday for $252 million to care
for refugees.
The European
Union’s head office also expressed concern of a looming
humanitarian crisis, proposing Wednesday that the EU almost
double its aid to Afghan refugees to $48 million. The EU’s
15 governments and the European Parliament must still approve
the extra $23 million in funding.
“Today
we are witnessing an unprecedented global effort to combat
terrorism,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Ruud Lubbers. “We need a similar unique effort to deal
with possible humanitarian consequences of whatever happens
in Afghanistan.”
UNHCR
officials fear than any action in Afghanistan, where the ruling
Taliban militia are thought to harbor alleged terrorist Osama
bin Laden, could send up to 1.5 million people fleeing toward
neighboring countries, Lubbers told representatives of governments
that support the agency.
It could
be the largest flight of refugees since Serbian forces drove
hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from their homes
in Kosovo during NATO’s 1999 air war against Yugoslavia,
the agency said.
UNHCR
planners expect that up to 1 million Afghans will cross the
border into Pakistan, 400,000 into Iran and 50,000 each into
Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The agency
needs the money over the next six months to be able to build
refugee camps, and supply 80,000 tents and other relief goods.
The United
Nations has been supporting 5 million people affected by years
of war and drought inside Afghanistan. It also is helping
care for up to 4 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran.
The agency
said later that it appeared Pakistan was easing its ban on
any new refugees entering the country. Tens of thousands of
Afghans are waiting on the Afghan side, unable to cross.
UNHCR
noted that Pakistan repeated Wednesday that the borders would
remain closed to Afghans without proper travel documents.
But,
an agency statement said, Pakistani officials “have indicated
that people who manage to cross illegally will be assisted
in camps in Pakistan.”
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