July 12, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 11: Over 200,000 Afghan refugees have returned home from Pakistan since early this year under a voluntary repatriation programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency said on Friday.

UNHCR has processed 202,753 returnees from Jan 1 to the end of the week’s operations on Thursday, a UNHCR statement said.

The ongoing voluntary repatriation programme has been in addition to the current relocation of about 19,000 Afghan asylum-seekers who had been stranded in the “waiting area” on the Pakistani-Afghan border at Chaman since early 2002, UNHCR said.

UNHCR is implementing a voluntary repatriation programme agreed to by Pakistan and Afghanistan.—AFP