U.N. urges Pakistan not to push back Afghan refugees | International | Reuters

U.N. urges Pakistan not to push back Afghan refugees | International | Reuters: "KABUL (Reuters) - The United Nations urged Pakistan on Tuesday not to force Afghan refugees back to their homeland when it shuts four border camps soon, saying Afghanistan was already swamped by Afghans evicted from Iran.

Afghanistan, crippled by more than 20 years of war, has millions of its people either in refugee camps or working illegally in neighboring Pakistan and Iran. Many send back money, sustaining communities inside the impoverished nation.

But in April Iran stepped up evictions of Afghans classed as illegal immigrants, deporting about 100,000 Afghans since then -- equal to almost a third of all those previously evicted by Iran in 2006, the U.N. refugee agency, the UNHCR, said on Tuesday.

Now, with Pakistan planning to shut down camps holding more than 220,000 Afghan refugees by the end of August, the UNHCR urged Pakistan to tread carefully, fearful that impoverished Afghanistan could be hit from east and west by floods of people.

'It has to happen in a peaceful way,' said the UNHCR's representative to Afghanistan, Salvatore Lombardo.

Pakistan says more than 2 million Afghan refugees and wants them to go home, saying refugee camps are fertile recruiting grounds for Afghan Taliban insurgents." Read complete post here.