ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran host 90 percent of Afghan refugees, according to a report released by the United Nations on Wednesday, as the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan shows no signs of abating, leading to a displacement of 9.7 million of its nationals until the middle of this year.
Afghanistan witnessed an end to a war that lasted for about two decades in August 2021 when the United States-led international forces pulled out of the country and the Taliban swept back to power by seizing control of Kabul and extending administrative outreach to other cities.
While the conflict has largely subsided, the UN report on forced displacement noted that rising prices, a collapsing economy and ever-increasing restrictions on the rights of women and girls continued to cause social and economic miseries.
“Poverty is endemic, half of the population of more than 40 million people faces acute food insecurity, and nearly 3.3 million people in the country remained displaced from their homes at mid-2023,” it said while pointing out that the total number of Afghan refugees had globally increased from 5.7 million to 6.1 million.
“Together, the Islamic Republic of Iran (3.4 million) and Pakistan (2.1 million) hosted 90 percent of all Afghan refugees,” the report added.
The UN also highlighted that the total number of refugees had increased worldwide by 1.2 million or 3 percent during the first half of the year due to outbreak of conflicts in places like Sudan and the continuation of the war in Ukraine.
By the end of June, there were an estimated 35.8 million refugees globally, most of whom have been in displacement for many years.
“The world’s focus now is – rightly – on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “But globally, far too many conflicts are proliferating or escalating, shattering innocent lives and uprooting people.”
“The international community’s inability to solve conflicts or prevent new ones is driving displacement and misery,” he added. “We must look within, work together to end conflicts and allow refugees and other displaced people to return home or restart their lives.”
UN report reveals Pakistan and Iran host 90 percent Afghan refugees amid ongoing crisis
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UN report reveals Pakistan and Iran host 90 percent Afghan refugees amid ongoing crisis
- The UN says the total number of Afghan refugees has globally increased from 5.7 million to 6.1 million
- The UN report laments the international community’s inability to solve old conflicts and prevent new ones
With monitors and lawsuits, Pakistanis fight for clean air
- Independent air monitors expose gaps in official pollution data
- Pollution exposure linked to heavy health and economic costs
KARACHI: With pollution in Pakistan hitting record highs in recent years, citizens clutching air monitors and legal papers are taking the fight for clean air into their own hands.
More than a decade ago, engineer Abid Omar had a “sneaking suspicion” that what the government described as seasonal fog was actually a new phenomenon.
“It wasn’t there in my childhood” in Lahore, said the 45-year-old who now lives in coastal Karachi, where the sea breeze no longer saves residents from smog.
With no official data available at the time, Omar asked himself: “If the government is not fulfilling its mandate to monitor air pollution, why don’t I do that for myself?“
His association, the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI), installed its first monitor in 2016 and now has around 150 nationwide.
The data feeds into the monitoring organization IQAir, which in 2024 classified Pakistan as the third most-polluted country in the world.
Levels of cancer-causing PM2.5 microparticles were on average 14 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.
Schools are often shut for millions of children and hospitals fill up when the smog is at its worst, caused by a dangerous combination of poor-quality diesel, agricultural burning and winter weather.
PAQI data has already played a key role in the adoption of pollution policies, serving as evidence during a 2017 case at Lahore’s high court to have smog recognized as air pollution that is a danger to public health.
Using one of their air monitors, PAQI demonstrated that “the air quality was hazardous inside the courtroom,” Omar said.
The court then ordered the regional government of Punjab to deploy its own monitoring stations — now 44 across the province — and make the data public.
But the government also says private monitors are unreliable and cause panic.
Researchers say, however, that these devices are essential to supplement official data that they view as fragmented and insufficiently independent.
“They got alarmed and shut down some stations when the air pollution went up,” Omar said.
3D-PRINTED MONITORS
Officials have overhauled the management of brick kilns, a major source of black carbon emissions, and taken other measures such as fining drivers of high-emission vehicles and incentivizing farmers to stop agricultural burning.
Worried about their community in Islamabad, academics Umair Shahid and Taha Ali established the Curious Friends of Clean Air organization.
In three years, they have deployed a dozen plug-sized devices, made with a 3D printer at a cost of around $50 each, which clock air quality every three minutes.
Although they do not contribute to IQAir’s open-source map or have government certification, their readings have highlighted alarming trends and raised awareness among their neighbors.
An outdoor yoga exercise group began scheduling their practice “at times where the air quality is slightly better in the day,” said Shahid.
He has changed the times of family outings to minimize the exposure of his children, who are particularly vulnerable, to the morning and evening pollution peaks.
Their data has also been used to convince neighbors to buy air purifiers — which are prohibitively expensive for most Pakistanis — or to use masks that are rarely worn in the country.
’RIGHT TO BREATHE’
The records show air quality remains poor throughout the year, even when the pollution haze is not visible to the naked eye.
“The government is trying to control the symptoms, but not the origin,” said Ali.
Pollution exposure in Pakistan caused 230,000 premature deaths and illnesses in 2019, with health costs equivalent to nine percent of GDP, according to the World Bank.
Frustrated with what they see as government inaction, some citizens have taken the legal route.
Climate campaigner Hania Imran, 22, sued the state in December 2024 for the “right to breathe clean air.”
She is pushing the authorities to switch to cleaner fuel supplies, but no date has been set for a verdict and the outcome remains unclear.
“We need accessible public transport... we need to go toward sustainable development,” said Imran, who moved from Lahore to Islamabad in search of better air quality.
Pollution has multiple causes, she said, and “it’s actually our fault. We have to take accountability for it.”
