19 May 2009 – Almost 1.5 million people have escaped fighting between Government troops and Taliban militants in north-west Pakistan, the United Nations refugee agency said today, calling the displacement the largest and fastest to occur anywhere in the world in recent years.
According to the Social Welfare Department of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), 1.45 million people have been registered in 89 centres since 2 May.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres, who wrapped up a three-day visit to the area this weekend, has called on the international community for a massive influx of support to assist the surging numbers of uprooted people.
“It’s like trying to catch something that’s moving ahead of us because the number of people on the move every day is so big and the response is never enough,” he said. “Leaving this population without the support they need – with such massive numbers – could constitute an enormous destabilizing factor.”
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