Emergency Grant Aid to Afghan Refugees

October 30, 2001

On October 30 (Tue), the Government of Japan decided to extend an emergency grant aid of 3.3 million dollars (353.1 million yen) to the Afghan refugees through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Afghanistan is a country where the world's largest number of refugees have been displaced for years because of severe damage caused by drought and a cold wave as well as civil war which has lasted for more than two decades. In addition to these circumstances, more refugees have been fleeing to the neighboring countries of Afghanistan, since the beginning of the armed attacks by the U.S. and other countries.
Japan stated on October 4 that it is prepared to provide up to 120 million dollars (approximately 14.5 billion yen), which is approximately 20 percent of the total funding requirements in accordance with specific requests it receives for Afghan refugees assistance efforts undertaken by U.N. agencies and other humanitarian organizations. As part of that assistance, Japan has announced that it will provide six million dollars (approximately 700 million yen, which is approximately 20 percent of the emergency appeal (29 million dollars) by the UNHCR, needed as the initial cost for the first two months to prepare for accepting Afghan refugees who may flow into the surrounding countries.
The 3.3 million dollar emergency assistance is extended as a part of the six million dollars in response to the UNHCR's emergency appeal. In addition to this emergency assistance, Japan and the United Nations have been working together to extend 2.7 million dollars from the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security, which was established on a Japanese initiative.

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