GENEVA, March 2: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday estimated that some 250,000 Afghan refugees could return home this year from Pakistan and Iran.

“The planning figure for returns from Pakistan and Iran in 2007 is 250,000 Afghan returnees,” said the agency’s office in a statement.

It was unable to give a breakdown between the two countries.

The agency has helped a total of 3.7 million Afghan refugees return home from neighbouring countries since 2002, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid Van Genderen Stort told AFP. They included some 2.87 million from Pakistan and 837,800 from Iran.

Some 2.1 million Afghans are still in Pakistan and 915,000 in Iran, according to the agency.

However, the numbers of voluntary repatriations has been dwindling over the years and many Afghans are not expected to return to their homeland.

“This displacement has been going on for two decades or more and many of the Afghans in neighbouring countries are integrated in local society, they have businesses or jobs and families,” UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists.—AFP