Kazakhstan Ready To Receive 50,000 Refugees From Afghanistan

Kazakhstan is ready to receive 50,000 refugees from Afghanistan. The authorities of the South Kazakhstan Region are already preparing to accommodate 30,000 people fleeing from the war, the chairperson of the regional Red Cross and Red Crescent Committee, Malika Zhusupova, told journalists on Thursday. "They all will need a place to live in, food, clothing and footwear, as well as medical services," she said. "The refugees will be accommodated in uninhabited buildings, vacated children's camps, and tents. We have ordered, first of all, blankets, sleeping-bags, pillows, warm clothes, kitchen utensils, and food. And, of course, medicines. We have received information that there may be people among the refugees infected with malaria and scabbies." Kazakhstan's Finance Minister Mazhit Esenbayev told a briefing in Astana several days after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that his government was ready to provide material aid, above all, to ethnic Kazakhs living on Afghan territories that might become areas of combat actions.