Muslim nations will meet in Pakistan in November to discuss the plight of nine million refugees in the Islamic world, including thousands from the Middle East conflict, officials said on Monday. The conference of ministers from the 57-state Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is being co-ordinated with the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, they said.
"Protection of refugees and the institution of asylum both have a long and very positive tradition in the Islamic world," UNHCR spokeswoman Fatma Bassiouni told AFP.
"The OIC conference in November will provide an opportunity to strengthen our co-operation in addressing refugee issues; to seek solutions to protracted refugee situations; to emphasise the asylum traditions and highlight the contributions that Islamic countries have made in sharing much of the refugee and displacement burden in today's world." she added.
At the conference scheduled for November 27-29 the ministers will deliberate on a so-called "Islamabad Declaration" which would be the first ever document to set out the OIC's position on refugees.
Similar documents have been adopted by African and Latin American nations, forming key planks of the international legal framework on displaced people, but never before by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
Countries belonging to the OIC are host to an estimated 9.4 million of the 20.8 million refugees and others of concern to UNHCR world-wide, the UN said. The figure excludes Palestinian refugees. Included in the UN's figure are the millions of Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan and Iran over the past quarter-century of conflict.
The conference will also deliberate on an associated plan of action. A UN official said the issue of refugees from the recent conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon was also expected to come up at the conference, although not as a formal part of the agenda.
More than 900,000 people have been displaced by Israeli bombardments that also destroyed thousands of homes, dozens of bridges and hundreds of kilometres of roads.
Many have gone to neighbouring Syria. The OIC was vocal in showing "solidarity" for Lebanon throughout the war, staging an emergency meeting in Malaysia earlier this month where it demanded an immediate cease-fire and condemned "relentless" Israeli aggression.