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Executive Summary for February 8th

We review the latest issues related to refugees, including Pakistan extending its deadline for refugees to leave, a U.N. projection on the growing Burundian refugee crisis and a legal opinion on E.U. countries’ obligations to provide humanitarian visas.

Published on Feb. 8, 2017 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Pakistan Extends Deadline for Afghan Returns

Pakistan extended its deadline for millions of Afghan refugees to return home, from March until the end of December.

Pakistani information minister Maryam Aurangzeb said the government was also putting a new visa regime in place to stop Afghans crossing the border unofficially, the Associated Press reported.

Pakistan hosts around 1.5 million registered refugees and an estimated 1 million unregistered refugees from Afghanistan, many of whom have spent decades in the country.

Islamabad has rescheduled its deadline for Afghans to leave several times since 2015.

U.N. Expects Half a Million Burundian Refugees This Year

The U.N. refugee agency projects that the number of people fleeing turmoil in Burundi will reach 500,000 this year, the Associated Press reported.

Already, some 380,000 people have fled the country, including new refugees displaced since a 2015 political crisis and older generations who fled earlier wars.

Most are sheltering in neighboring countries, including Tanzania, and the U.N. warned that more land needs to be allocated for refugee camps, or “these countries will struggle to provide sufficient shelter and lifesaving services in the camp sites.”

E.U. Legal Official: Belgium Cannot Refuse Visas to At-Risk Refugees

The advocate general of the European Court of Justice says Belgium’s refusal of visas to a family of Syrian refugees was contrary to E.U. law.

The legal opinion given by Paolo Mengozzi is non-binding but it is likely to influence the verdict in the case, due in several weeks, reported the E.U. Observer.

The Orthodox Christian family from Aleppo applied for Belgian visas last October in order to make an asylum claim once they reach the country.

Belgium argued that the family intended to overstay the three-month visa limit and the country could not admit everyone in a “catastrophic situation.”

Mengozzi said Belgium’s refusal to provide the family with visas violates the E.U.’s prohibition on torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. E.U. countries must “issue a visa on humanitarian grounds in a situation where there is a serious risk of breach” of the E.U. charter of fundamental rights, he said.

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