ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday that Pakistan will not be able to take more refugees if violence after the withdrawal of US forces prompts a new exodus from Afghanistan.
Millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan during decades of conflict, after their homeland was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979.
Violence has been on the rise in the war-battered country in recent weeks as the Taliban had captured dozens of districts, especially in northern areas, where they had convinced some government forces to surrender. The surge in violence comes all US-led foreign forces have begun to leave the country and are set to complete the drawdown by Sept. 11.
"Pakistan does not want a further influx of refugees from Afghanistan," Qureshi told reporters in a weekly media briefing in Multan.
"We can't take more," he said, adding that violence is likely to escalate once the US withdraws.
Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Pakistan may seal its border to prevent the influx of refugees.
He was responding to a question what Pakistan would do if the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
“What if (the) Taliban try to take over Afghanistan through (the) military? Then we will seal the border, because now we can, because we have fenced our border, which was previously (open)," he said. "Pakistan does not want to get into, number one, conflict, secondly, we do not want another influx of refugees.”
Pakistan currently hosts 1.4 million registered refugees from Afghanistan, with the actual number believed to be over 3 million.
