UN refugee commissioner Ruud Lubbers said today he was shocked by the plight of 80,000 Afghan refugees in a makeshift camp in Pakistan and would press for an improvement in their conditions.
"I don't believe this. This is crazy," said a visibly shaken Mr Lubbers as the father of a seven-year-old boy whose head was bleeding from a wound told him he would rather let the child die than get first-aid treatment and stay on in the camp.
Mr Lubbers leaned down and examined the wound on Nasir Ahmed's head before urging his father to take him to a doctor. But the father suggested life in the camp was so miserable that death would be preferable.
"It's better to die then to take him to the clinic," said the father, stunning the former Dutch prime minister, who is visiting Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to assess the problems of Afghan refugees.
Afghans have been among the largest national groups of refugees in the care of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over the last 20 years.
Jallozai camp, 110 kms (70 miles) west of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, is a makeshift collection of tents that was initially set up for refugees in transit to official camps but has evolved into a permanent settlement since September.
Pakistan hosts more than two million Afghan refugees and - having taken in more than 200,000 since September - refuses to accept any more. It says Jallozai is a transit camp and it will not allow it to become another regular refugee centre.