As temperatures drop in Pakistan, UN distributes blankets to Afghan refugees

As winter's freezing temperatures descend on Pakistan, the United Nations today announced the start of an emergency distribution of blankets to Afghan refugees living in the country.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is providing more than 160,000 blankets around the Pakistani border city of Chaman and in other refugee camps in the region to protect thousands of Afghans threatened by a wave of cold weather.

Agency staff today completed the distribution of nearly 20,000 extra blankets to Afghan asylum-seekers who have been stranded in the "waiting area" just inside the Pakistani border at Chaman since Pakistan barred the admission of more refugees last February, according to UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski. "Each Afghan at the squalid, makeshift site received one blanket, in addition to the supplies that have been handed out earlier in the year," he said.

An additional 700 baby blankets will be distributed to mothers through the health centre in the area, while the distribution of extra winter clothes is also being arranged.

The UN refugee agency is also transferring 20,000 blankets from its Chaman warehouses for distribution among the internally displaced Afghans in Spin Boldak, the town just across the border inside Afghanistan.