ISLAMABAD: Nearly 134,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, almost all from Afghanistan, will require resettlement in Pakistan in 2024, warns a fresh report by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
According to the ‘Projected Global Resettlement Needs Assessment for 2024’, UNHCR anticipates a 20 per cent increase in global refugee resettlement needs for the next year.
Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh, and Malaysia, are the largest refugees hosting countries throughout the Asia-pacific region, and have repeatedly highlighted the need for responsibility-sharing and tangible contributions to the refugee response.
Third-country solutions for refugees were significantly expanded in 2022, including through strengthened resettlement programmes for the most at-risk refugees living in protracted situations in the region’s largest host countries.
The latest assessment in the report shows that while resettled refugees from host countries represent a sliver of the total population and needs, engagement by third countries to support and receive those most in need among the population is recognised and appreciated by host governments and opens space for UNHCR to engage on broader protection issues.
Currently, there are 5.2 million individuals from Afghanistan living as refugees or in a refugee-like situation in the region.
They are residing in major host countries, Pakistan and Iran, driven by deteriorating human rights situation at home, and the number may increase by the end of 2023, the report states.
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