GENEVA, July 29: About 350,000 Afghans who took refuge in Pakistan and Iran have returned to their homeland since the start of the year, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

“Despite the ongoing security problems in parts of Afghanistan and tremendous development and economic needs, Afghan refugees are still going back in significant numbers,” said Kris Janowski, spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Most of them, 300,000, returned with the help of the UNHCR and the rest without assistance, he added. However, the figure is sharply down from the 1.87 million Afghan refugees who went home in 2002.

The UNHCR estimated that 1.1 million refugees remained in Iran at the start of the year and 1.2 million in Pakistan.

These two countries have hosted millions of Afghan refugees over the past two decades.—AFP