700 returning refugee families in Paktia without shelter

GARDEZ (Pajhwok): Out of 1,200 Afghan refugee families who recently returned to southeastern Paktia province from Pakistan, 700 families are without shelter and demand solution to the problem.

Some of the returnees have rented houses because as they could not afford to construct houses for themselves due to economic problems.

Faridullah, one of the returnees and a resident of Ahmad Aba area, told Pajhwok Afghan News he was living in a rented house.

He asked the government to provide the returning families with food items and firewood.

He said: “I pay 2,500afs house rent. I have no job and cannot afford to buy firewood to warn our house in this cold winter, I ask government and NGOs to support us”.

Khan Mohammad, another returnee, said one of his relatives had given him a house without rent.

“More than 10,000afs are given in assistance to each family at the border, I have no home in Afghanistan and now I live in the house of a relative,” he said.

Refugee Affairs director Maulawi Habibullah Shahidzada said 1,200 Afghan refugee families had returned to Paktia from Pakistan.

He said 700 families were without shelter, but UNHCR would support them.

According to government’s figures, about 500,000 Afghan refugees have returned to the country from Pakistan since November 1.

hz/ma

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