The number of Afghans trying to flee to neighboring Pakistan has increased significantly in recent days, several media reported. An official at the border crossing at the southern city of Spin Boldak tells the DPA news agency that about 10,000 inhabitants of Afghanistan make the crossing every day. Normally about 4000 Afghans a day cross the border there.
In the British newspaper The Guardian a local Pakistani health official speaks of an unprecedented increase in the number of refugees from Afghanistan. Especially after Thursday, when many western countries stopped evacuating and Kabul airport was hit by a scale, the number of refugees increased rapidly, he says. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are said to have crossed the border between Spin Boldak (Afghanistan) and Chaman (Pakistan) in recent days.
Three dead
That crossing is one of the most important border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The other is the border crossing at the city of Torkham, about 180 kilometers from Kabul. But it is currently limited open: only Pakistanis are allowed to cross the border.
Yesterday, three Afghans were killed at the Torkham border post when Pakistani border troops fired on a group of refugees. Several Afghans were injured.
‘No influx’
A spokesman for the Pakistani state of Balochistan, which includes Chaman, denies in The Guardian that a massive influx of refugees has started in the area. “There may have been a few individual cases, but there’s been no influx,” he says. “We will not allow Afghan refugees.” The spokesperson says that the Afghans who have been admitted are received in refugee camps.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR also says that there does not appear to be a large influx yet. The organization fears that half a million inhabitants of Afghanistan will flee the country in the near future. That comes on top of the 2.2 million Afghans currently registered as refugees abroad, the organization says. Most reside in Pakistan and Iran.
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