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Between hope and hard place, World Refugees Day observed

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Refugees in Pakistan observed World Refugees Day on Wednesday with a mix of hope and concern about their homelands. The theme of World Refugees Day 2007 in Pakistan was “Hope for the Future”.

According to a press release, 21-year-old Somali refugee Najeeba Jama Rabi spoke in Islamabad about her experience of living in a war zone, fleeing from home and scenes of family members lying dead around her. She took refuge in Pakistan in 1993. Rabi said over the years she had gone through an emotional roller coaster watching the fluctuating situation in Somalia and waiting for a chance to go home.

“It takes a lot of skill and courage to live through hard times,” she said. “It takes a lot of strength to keep your spirit alive and have hope for the future.”

Pakistan is home to more than 2.1 million registered Afghan refugees, 45 percent of whom live in 86 camps in the North West Frontier Province, Balochistan and Punjab. More than three million Afghans have returned home with UNHCR assistance since 2002.

There are also several hundred non-Afghan refugees and several thousand asylum seekers in Pakistan’s urban areas. The largest groups of asylum seekers are Afghans, Iraqis, Somalis and Iranians.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the number of people forcibly displaced through violence and persecution, as well as for other reasons, was set to rise in the future. “We are very concerned that many conflicts today are not being solved and are becoming worse and worse, resulting in many displacement situations, “ he said.

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