President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday said the return of Afghan refugees remained a vital and integral part of Pakistan’s efforts for durable peace and development in the region and sought the support of international community to achieve this objective.
The president was talking to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr. Minister for State and Frontier Regions Lt-Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch was also present.
President Mamnoon said Pakistan looked forward to working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and to help him achieve tangible results on its objective of early repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan.
He said the international community had a great responsibility vis-à-vis the cause of refugees and pointed out that Pakistan had contributed significantly towards it, by hosting millions of Afghan refugees on its soil for over three decades.
President Mamnoon said in the aftermath of the exodus of refugees to the West, there is now a better understanding and realisation of the dimensions and extent of the refugee crisis.
He said now the West should better appreciate the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in hosting the Afghan refugees and this had been a huge burden shouldered by Pakistan, with associated political, socio-economic, security and environmental consequences.
The president said Pakistan has a legitimate expectation to see the Afghans return to their homeland for peace and stability in the region.
He stressed that the world needed to make combined efforts to combat the menace of terrorism and extremism to usher in peace and stability in the whole world and end the refugee crises in all parts of the world.
Filippo Grandi thanked Pakistan for cooperation in hosting a very large number of Afghan refugees and said his organisation would strive to resolve the longstanding problem of refugees by creating conducive conditions for their return to Afghanistan.
