Pakistan warns of possible refugee influx

The government of Pakistan has warned that tough new sanctions against Afghanistan could generate a massive new exodus of refugees.

The sanctions -- which include a unilateral arms embargo on the Taleban administration -- were approved by the United Nations Security Council earlier this week.

There are already two-million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, and last month the authorities closed the border, saying they couldn't cope with any more.

An official of the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, Yussuf Hassan told the BBC that some fifty-thousand refugees had crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan in the past few weeks.

He feared that many others would now follow. He said that his agency was working with others in trying to cope with the growing problem, but it urgently needed more money from the international community.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service