Unable to cope with the massive influx of refugees, authorities in North West Frontier Province have told the refugees to go home by 15 July. A new wave of more than 170,000 Afghan refugees has poured into Pakistan since September following a catastrophic crop failure and an escalation in the country's civil war. The United Nations has warned that one million in Afghanistan face famine. Earlier this month, the frontier authorities refused a UN request to open a new refugee camp, stranding 80,000 Afghans in fast deteriorating conditions. Refugees are now so desperate that humanitarian agencies cannot distribute aid for fear of stampedes.
Correspondents describe the situation as an humanitarian crisis of biblical proportions.
There are already about one million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, along with an estimated two million illegal immigrants. About 80,000 refugees are stranded in western Afghanistan and another 10,000 have collected on the country's northern border with Tajikistan. He said the country faces total disaster unless the international community acts fast. The United States has called on Pakistan to stop deporting refugees. US ambassador William Milam said recently there was a lack of transparency about who was being deported and why.