The international community should show solidarity with Pakistan in the hour of need, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said while talking to BBC.
Pakistanis had generously hosted millions of Afghan refugees for decades despite a lot of negative impacts on their economy and society, he told BBC in Geneva. "It is fair that the international community should show solidarity with Pakistan," he added.
Dimension of the tragedy was so enormous that the UNHCR should be more active in the field, he said. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was putting all its resources together for ensuring that each and every quake survivor could had access to the winterised shelters.
The major problem being confronted by the United Nation was the funding diversion from other areas to Pakistan, he said. Admitting donors' problems due to increased number of natural calamities during 2005, he said that donations had been slow. However joint efforts were underway in collaboration with Pakistan government and NGOs to help the quake survivors.
It was encouraging that extremely poor people including from Brundi and Kongo were also financing the UNHCR's Pakistan earthquake operations, he said.
On pace of repatriation of Afghan refugees he said, "We only accept voluntarily repatriation from Afghans."
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