Islamabad (dpa) - More than 200,000 refugees returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan this year under the voluntary repatriation programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"By Wednesday, the UNHCR departure centres in Pakistan reported 206,589 Afghans had completed procedures and left for Afghanistan,'' said the UNHCR in a statement issued in Islamabad.

Under its largest-ever repatriation programme, the UNHCR has so far assisted more than 2.1 million refugees to return to their homes from Pakistan,'' said the statement.

The UNHCR expects about 400,000 refugees, living mostly in the northwestern frontier and the southern Balochistan provinces, to return to their home this year. About 340,000 Afghans left Pakistan last year under the voluntary repatriation programme.

The repatriation programme, which will remain operational until March 2006, is part of the tripartite agreement between UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. dpa ig eu