Himalayan News Service

Islamabad, May 8:

Hollywood actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has opposed Pakistan’s plans of relocating Afghan refugees to a new camp within the country, saying efforts should be made to send them home.

“Moving people after 25 years to another camp would not be finding a solution,” Jolie, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) goodwill ambassador, said at the conclusion of a four-day visit to Pakistan yesterday.

Jolie contended that the US invasion of Iraq had caused funds to be diverted from Afghanistan, due to which refugees living in Pakistan since the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979 had been left out in the cold. She appealed to donors to keep their pledges and release funds to enable the repatriation process to continue, The News reported today.

During her visit here, Jolie held talks with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, besides touring refugee camps in the North West Frontier Province.

Jolie also saw off a convoy of trucks carrying Afghans home as the total number repatriating under the UN refugee agency programme in 2005 passed 50,000.