ISLAMABAD, 14 July 2021, (TON): Pakistan’s government said that it has reached its limit and cannot accept more Afghan refugees as the threat of violence looms in Afghanistan. 

Pakistani officials are demanding that the world make arrangements for the refugees inside Afghanistan, amid fears that millions of Afghans may be forced to flee into neighboring countries if fighting between Taliban and Afghan government forces intensified or deteriorated into a civil war.  

Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf told media “as a matter of fact, we are not in position to accept any more refugees.”

According to the U.N “Almost 3 million Afghan refugees, half of them unregistered, have been living in Pakistan since the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and subsequent waves of violence and later a civil war.”   

Yusuf said “we are willing to help but we are in no position to take in new refugees this time around. The international forces and the U.N. should make arrangements for them inside Afghanistan.”   

Yusuf said there needs to be an effort to prepare for the refugees, highlighting his government's policy.

Pakistani authorities say they have been hosting millions of refugees even though they are not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or the 1967 Optional Protocol for refugees.