Staff Reporter
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has invited the Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar in the Turkey Municipal Forum and Global Refugee Forum which are scheduled to be held on 26-27 November 2019 in Gaziantep, Turkey and 17-18 December 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, respectively.
The invitation was handed over to the Mayor Karachi by a delegation of UNHCR represented by the UNHCR’s External Relations Officer Ms. Marie-Claude Poirier, spokesperson for Pakistan Qaiser Khan Afridi and Hafiz Kakar which called on Mayor Karachi in his office on Wednesday.
Ms. Marie Claude told the mayor that the two day Turkey Municipal Forum on “Local solutions to migration and displacement- from emergency to resilience and development” is being co-organized by UNHCR in Gaziantep and the second event is the Global Refugee Forum the first major meeting of the 21st century will take place in Geneva.
The Turkey Municipal Forum will provide opportunities for cities and local development partners to exchange good practices and explore innovative partnerships. Discussions will culminate with the adoption of declaration signed by the city mayors and will feed into the discussion at the Global Refugee Forum that aimed at highlighting key achievements and receive concrete pledges to achieve tangible benefits for refugees and host communities whereas one of the sessions will focus on the role of cities in the world.
She said that 70 million people around the world have been forced to flee their home due to violence and persecution. Every minute dozens of people seek refuge across borders, since 1979 Pakistan has kept its borders open despite limited resources and with some 1.4 million afghan refugees currently residing Pakistan is one of the world’s largest host countries ranking only second after Turkey. The City of Karachi hosts some 63 thousand refugees and countless others of concern to UNHCR. This level of generosity deserves international recognition and enhanced support.
