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This article comes courtesy of BBC News. The original is at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1611000/1611941.stm
Sunday, 21 October, 2001, 12:17 GMT 13:17 UK
Pakistan holds back refugee tideTension is growing on the Afghan-Pakistan border as Pakistan border guards refuse entry to thousands of refugees fleeing US air raids and deteriorating conditions.Pakistan officials say that 10-15,000 Afghan refugees are massing at the Chaman crossing, 100km [62 miles] north of Quetta.
Only the injured, those with identity papers or able to pay bribes are being allowed to pass.
Pakistani social workers have set up a tent to give first aid to people with injuries, but there have been reports of scuffles between refugees and border guards.Stones have been thrown from the other side of the Afghan border.
Trying to go the other way was a group of Pakistani men from Kashmir seeking to fight for jihad against the Americans, the BBC's Rachel Wright reports from the border.
But the Pakistani border guards refused to let them through and chased them away with sticks.
The significant rise in the numbers of refugees is being fuelled by increasingly intense US air strikes, food shortages and growing anarchy inside Afghanistan.
The United Nations has urged Pakistan to allow aid workers to set up temporary reception camps.
Ten trucks loaded with tents, blankets and supplies for the proposed camp left Quetta on Sunday, the AFP news agency reported.
Looming crisis
"They are not allowing refugees in and they do not want refugees. That is the reality," UN spokeswoman Fatoumata Kaba told AFP. "But we will continue to press the government."
The UN has warned that as many as 1.5 million people may be displaced if the US military action in Afghanistan continues, with as many as 300,000 Afghans seeking refuge in Pakistan this year alone.
"We are concerned that thousands of people are approaching the border," said UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler. "We haven't seen a refugee flood yet but all the ingredients are there."
Even before the American strikes, Pakistan was sheltering some 2.5 million Afghans who had fled years of civil war and drought. It says it cannot cope with any more.
Grim future
Pakistani officials say 50,000 Afghans have crossed into Pakistan since the crisis began. But even inside Pakistan, the refugees face a grim future.
The Pakistani Government only allows new refugee camps to be built in the border area, a remote and inhospitable region.
Aid agencies say their work is often hampered by attacks on their staff in an area that is notoriously insecure.
The area also lacks much basic infrastructure making it harder to supply essentials such as water, a situation exacerbated by the region-wide drought.
