I'd like to thank the witnesses, Ms. Osman from IDRF and Ms. Imseis from UNHCR, for being here. Thank you for the fantastic work that both of you and your organizations are doing.
I will share that I was in Pakistan in June of this year, prior to the news hitting and the intense flooding starting, but I saw the beginning of the monsoons and some of the impacts around that.
I am half Pakistani. Contrary to what people might think, I'm not full-blooded; I'm part. I was engaging with many Canadians of Pakistani origin who were speaking with me and trying to have Canada, our country, do something for the flooding situation.
I want to note that while in Pakistan, I saw many UNHCR tents along the roadside as I was travelling through the north. Many people were living along the highways in those tents that had “UNHCR” written all over them.
We know there are 1.4 million Afghans who are registered in Pakistan. Can you tell us how many registered and unregistered Afghans there are, and how this flooding situation further puts these refugees—not only Afghans, but all refugees—on the edge literally and figuratively?