UN warns of massive displacement in Pakistan
May 19th, 2009 - 2:49 am ICT by IANSGeneva, May 19 (DPA) With over two million people now displaced in Pakistan owing to fighting in the North West Frontier Province, the UN warned Monday that the crisis could be one of the worst in years.
The displacement was “one of the most dramatic of recent times”, said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
A total of 1,454,377 people have been displaced since May 2, coming on top of 553,916 who fled their homes last year and have not felt it safe enough to return.
The UN was struggling to keep up with the influx.
“It’s like trying to catch something that’s moving ahead of us because the number of people on the move every day is so big and the response is never enough,” said Redmond.
He had just recently returned from a visit to Pakistan with the High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.
The UN was likely to issue a large financial appeal for the region in the near future, officials have said. It could go into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Tags: antonio guterres, displacement, dpa, frontier province, geneva, high commissioner, influx, north west frontier, pakistan, refugee agency, refugees, ron redmond, spokesman, two million
