Pakistan says new Afghan refugees to be kept in border camps away from cities

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said if violence escalated in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of United States troops and led to a fresh influx of refugees into Pakistan, the government would confine them in border camps and not allow them to reach Pakistani cities.
The troop withdrawal has raised fears about the future of existing Afghan refugees — one of the largest and most protracted displacements in modern history — and concerns over a new influx of refugees into Pakistan if violence escalates.
About three million Afghans live in Pakistan, with more in neighboring Iran, many of them struggling to get full access to education, health and employment.
“In the past Pakistan had an open border with Afghanistan, which has now been fenced, and in case of new refugees, appropriate steps would be initiated to handle them in a systematic manner,” Hussain told reporters on Monday. “Pakistan is in contact with all Afghan parties and making full efforts for a peaceful [transition] and an all-encompassing government in Kabul.”
The information minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan had unequivocally declared that Pakistan would be a partner of the United States in peace efforts, but not war, in Afghanistan.