ISLAMABAD – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived inPakistan on Sunday to attend the international conference on Afghanrefugees.
The two-day conference titled “40 Years of Afghan Refugees Presence inPakistan: A New Partnership for Solidarity” will be held in Islamabad. TheUN chief who is on his first visit to the country since assuming officewill address the conference.
The conference would be a recognition of Pakistan’s “tremendous generosity”in hosting millions of refugees from Afghanistan over four decades, the UNchief’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told the regular noon briefing inNew York.
The conference will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Khan and is beingorganised by the Government of Pakistan and the United Nations RefugeeAgency (UNHCR).
Pakistan is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, hometo an estimated 2.4 million registered and undocumented people who havefled Afghanistan, some as far back as the Soviet invasion of 1979.
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Many live in camps, while others have built lives for themselves inPakistan’s cities, paying rent and contributing to the economy.
In a press release issued last week, the foreign office said senior-levelparticipation was also expected from the UN, multilateral developmentsbanks, civil society, and the country’s private sector.
“This conference is taking place at an important juncture when efforts atconsolidating peace in Afghanistan are making progress,” it added.
