Security worse in Afghanistan: UN refugee chief

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says the security situation in Afghanistan has worsened in recent months and foreign staff are now unable to travel to half of the country.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says the security situation in Afghanistan has worsened in recent months and foreign staff are now unable to travel to half of the country.

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Guterres says the agency has to rely on local staff or Afghan partner organizations to reach tens of thousands of displaced people and returning refugees it is trying to aid.

He told reporters in Geneva that aid workers have become targets for violence in part because the distinction between the foreign military and humanitarian groups has been blurred.

Last month the United Nations announced it had relocated several foreign employees from the southern city of Kandahar to Kabul and told more than 200 Afghan workers to stay home after security threats.