The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR wants to continue working in Afghanistan following the takeover by the Taliban militants.
“We want to stay in the country because the people there need help now more than ever,” the UNHCR representative in Germany, Katharina Lumpp, told the German daily Die Welt in remarks published on Wednesday.
Together with other humanitarian organizations, the agency wants to continue providing humanitarian aid “in accordance with the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence,” Lumpp added.
The agency says it currently has around 200 employees working in Afghanistan. “Since the need for humanitarian aid has increased enormously and is likely to continue to rise, the people need more international support,” Lumpp explained.
She pointed out that over the past 40 years or more, more than 90 per cent of Afghan refugees have found shelter in neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
“Most of the Afghans who have been displaced in the past few months are currently internally displaced in their own country. They now urgently need support and humanitarian aid.”