KABUL, Aug 30: Pakistan should not put pressure on Afghan refugees to return home, Afghanistan said on Tuesday, the eve of a Pakistani deadline for camps to close in a remote region where troops have been battling Islamic militants.

About 2.5 million Afghan refugees have returned home from Pakistan since the Taliban government was overthrown in late 2001, but more than three million remain there.

“The government of Afghanistan wants there to be no pressure on refugees,” said Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Karim Rahimi.

“They should not be displaced by force. The return of refugees should be voluntary,” he told reporters.

Pakistan says the repatriation from camps in its Kurram and Bajaur agencies is voluntary and it wants the 100,000 refugees home and the camps closed by the end of August.

Mr Rahimi said there were 70,000 people in 20 camps in Kurram, and 53,000 in 12 camps in Bajaur.

He said more than four million refugees had returned to Afghanistan since the Taliban’s overthrow and their main problem was finding housing.

The camps in question are in Pakistan’s rugged tribal region on the Afghan border, where Pakistani forces have been trying to clear out foreign militants and quell tribal rebels.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees voiced support for the closure of the camps, saying refugees were in danger from clashes.—Reuters