Exodus to Iran feared by Anita Joshua

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday warned that the deteriorating condition of the flood-affected people in Balochistan could force them to move into Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province where the anti-Iran Jundullah Movement for the rights of the Sunni Baloch minority is active.

So bad is the situation in Balochistan that the UNHCR has begun developing contingency plans over the border in Iran. As of now, the UNHCR is confident that no one has crossed into Iran's restive Sistan-Baluchistan because of the floods. Iran is wary of any movement into its territory from Balochistan because of the support that Pakistani Balochis extend to the banned Jundullah Movement.

Though Balochistan was the first province to report flooding on July 22, its plight has been largely ignored; primarily because the security situation is such that aid workers are dissuaded from going there. Besides its own flood-affected, Balochistan has an additional six lakh people who have moved in from north-West Sindh as flood waters inundated those areas.

Briefing mediapersons here, UNHCR's Pakistan Representative Mengesha Kebede said the situation in remote Balochistan — the country's most under-developed province — has been largely overlooked as attention followed the flow of the Indus River south.

Keywords: Jundullah Movement, flood, Balochistan

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