Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has called for adequate financing of refugee support programmes initiated by UNHCR in countries that are hosting refugees.

While addressing a conference, he emphasised that the economies of developing countries were far more burdened by the novel coronavirus pandemic than the developed world.

He added Pakistan, that is hosting a large population of refugees from Afghanistan, receives the bare minimum support from UNHCR. He added that though Pakistan has adopted a "holistic approach" to aid its people, including the refugees, in these difficult times, "no state can handle the magnitude of this crisis alone".