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Despite its immense challenges, Pakistan never closed its doors or forcibly removed refugees from it soil, a former Pakistani diplomat said during a panel discussion held at United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York to raise awareness of the issues affecting refugees.

UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Oct, 2019 ) :Despite its immense challenges, Pakistan never closed its doors or forcibly removed refugees from it soil, a former Pakistani diplomat said during a panel discussion held at United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York to raise awareness of the issues affecting refugees.

Farukh Amil, a former Ambassador to the United Nations offices in Geneva, said Pakistan has always maintained that refugees should return home voluntarily and in dignity and honour.

The discussion, entitled, 'Refugees: the Media's Influence on Minds and Policies', was sponsored by Gazi Research Project, a platform which puts forward policy proposals to local and international authorities, multilateral organizations and private businesses aimed at improving the lives and livelihoods of the refugees.

The Panelists also included German filmmaker Ms. Elena Horn and an American civil society personality Ms. Kristina Wilfore.

In his remarks, Ambassador (retd) Amil said Pakistani media had not propagated any racist trope about the refugees, nor had any politician misused the media to create resentment against the refugees or to negatively use the refugees for electoral gain.

He said Pakistan continued to host the largest refugee population for the longest duration of time since the end of World War II, characterizing its sustained policy, over successive governments, as demonstrating "The Big Heart".

Pakistan, Amil said, had an 'honourable' history: In 1948 Polish refugees, (said to number 33,000); in 1990s many more came from the former Yugoslavia; countless from across South Asia, and most notably the 650,000 Rohingyas, who lived in a Karachi neighborhood called 'Burma Town.' "The world did not hear about these refugees because Pakistan had 'The Big Heart' to welcome and host them for decades," Amil said. Furthermore, he said, refugees came from Somalia, Iran and Central Asia.

The largest refugee population, officially estimated at 2.1 million, poured in from Afghanistan, but, in reality, the number was closer to 5 million.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Amil said global interest petered out, and for many years, donor fatigue meant that Pakistan was left with millions of refugees with an international support of only US $ one per refugee per year.

The retired Pakistani ambassador stressed that never did the Pakistani people nor the government nor the media vilify the refugee.

Highlighting the plight of a refugees escaping war, conflict and persecution, with the need to immediately find a safe place, Amid told the meeting that they raced to the nearest safe zone.

"Imagine this safe zone as a room where a stressed individual fearing violence and death sought immediate safety. That room for millions has been Pakistan."