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Red Cross official seeks ‘staggered’ return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan

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A senior Red Cross official has called for the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan to occur “in a more staggered way” so Afghanistan can better absorb them.

"It will be important to work with the government of Pakistan in 2024 to ask that if there are going to be returnees," that they arrive "in smaller numbers at a time just so it is more manageable on the Afghan side," said Alexander Matheou, regional director, Asia Pacific Region for the International Federation of the Red Cross, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Saturday.

Speaking in the Qatari capital, Doha, Matheou told journalists on Friday the challenges facing Afghan returnees from Pakistan was one of several pressing issues he discussed with the officials of the Islamic Emirate in Kabul.

"You will be aware that over half a million have crossed the border over recent months, and it is likely that we will see large numbers of new arrivals in the coming months," he said.

"I imagine this is probably the largest population flow in a short period of time in Asia since the population movement from Myanmar into Bangladesh in 2017," he added. "So, it is a significant event."

Since October, Pakistan has expelled more than 500,000 Afghan refugees who lacked proper documentation.

Matheou noted many of the returnees have lived in Pakistan for decades and are ill-equipped to begin a new life in a country that to them is unknown, without government or international support.

He described the returnees as being in generally poor health, especially the children, who account for nearly half of all returnees.

"The evidence of that was we visited clinics where they reported a real spike in cases of acute malnutrition coming from the arrivals from Pakistan.

"We visited routine immunization programs of the IFRC and the Afghan Red Crescent in the villages, and there it was clear looking at the children that as well as being anemic, you could see wasting and stunting among the children," he said.

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WFP delivers life-saving food to nearly 250,000 in Afghanistan

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The World Food Programme (WFP) has announced in a report that the organization was able to reach nearly 250,000 food-insecure people across Afghanistan with the assistance from China in the past few months.

The report said WFP was able to procure more than 2,000 metric tons of food, including fortified wheat flour and fortified vegetable oil, yellow split peas and salt which was distributed to more than 35,000 families or nearly 250,000 people across the country.

“Entire communities across Afghanistan experience despair and hunger,” said Ma Chen Guang, Counsellor of Economic and Commercial Affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan, at a ceremony in Kabul on Thursday."

“China will continue to work with the World Food Programme to provide food assistance to hungry Afghan families in need of assistance for survival.”

The report stated: “The contribution from China came at a critical moment when a massive funding shortfall put at risk WFP’s work in Afghanistan. Last year, WFP had to cut 10 million people from assistance and this summer, due to the ongoing funding crisis, 11 million people did not receive emergency food assistance.

“This included more than 2 million mothers and their children who received no specialized supplementary food to combat malnutrition.”

“Afghanistan remains a global hunger hotspot and more than three-quarters of all people across the country cannot afford a nutritious diet that keeps them from falling into malnutrition,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, Country Director of WFP Afghanistan.
“Families across the country need continued emergency food assistance to get through the winter months.”

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UK, Qatari officials discuss Afghanistan

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Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater, met Tuesday with Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Andrew McCoubrey, on the sidelines of the World Humanitarian Forum in London.

During the meeting, they detailed cooperation relations between the two countries and ways to boost them and discussed the humanitarian and development conditions in Afghanistan, especially in the fields of health and education, Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

They also exchanged views on joint cooperation in humanitarian and development projects in Afghanistan, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Suhail Shaheen, head of the Islamic Emirate's political office in Qatar, has met with the Turkish ambassador to Doha to discuss bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Turkey.

Shaheen said on X that the meeting also discussed education, health, agriculture and investment opportunities in Afghanistan.

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IEA appoints delegation to probe reports of massacre on Iran-Pakistan border

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The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has appointed a delegation to investigate reports of Afghans being killed on the Iran-Pakistan border.

Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, said the delegation is headed by Mullah Mohammad Ibrahim Sadr, the deputy interior minister for security.

He said the delegation has been tasked to investigate the matter thoroughly and comprehensively and submit its report to the prime minister's office and receive necessary instructions for further action.

Fitrat added that the delegation began its work on Wednesday and is trying to find out the truth as soon as possible.

On Tuesday, an Iranian-based human rights organization, Haalvsh, claimed Iranian forces had gunned down at least 260 Afghan migrants near the Kalgan Saravan region in Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province on Sunday evening.

 

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