Over 1,500 Afghan refugee families return home in single day

Kabul, July 20 (IANS) More than 1,500 Afghan refugee families returned to their homeland, Afghanistan, from the neighboring Iran and Pakistan in a single day, reported the state-owned Bakhtar news agency on Sunday.

A total of 1,576 refugee families returned to Afghanistan on Saturday, and out of these, 81 families returned from Pakistan and the remaining 1,495 families returned from Iran, the official media outlet added.

All the returnees have received necessary assistance at the crossing points, the news agency further said.

The return of Afghan refugees has gained momentum over the past couple of months as the host countries have asked the undocumented migrants to leave, Xinhua news agency reported.

More than 1.3 million Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland over the past year, and only in June, some 600,000 Afghan refugees reportedly returned from Iran.

Earlier in June, over 30,000 Afghan refugees returned home from Iran through the Islam Qala border crossing in western Herat, marking one of the largest mass returns recently, according to a local official.

Following this massive wave of returns, all necessary supplies, including water, food, and immediate medical care, have been provided to the returnees, said Mawlawi Ahmadullah Muttaqi, provincial director of the Information and Culture Department.

Afghanistan shares two key border crossing points with Iran, one in western Herat province and the other in Nimroz province. Recently, both crossings have witnessed a sharp increase in the number of returning refugees.

--IANS

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