QUETTA, April 14: A group of 89 Afghan refugee families left for Afghanistan on Monday under the voluntary repatriation programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“This is the first batch of Afghan refugees going back to their country this year from Quetta,” a spokesman for UNHCR’s suboffice, Babar Baloch, told newsmen at Baleli voluntary repatriation centre.

He said the 89 families comprising 438 persons were living in the suburbs of the city for the last 10 years and they were returning voluntarily with the assistance of the UNHCR.

“Before crossing into Afghanistan, 266 refugees, including women, would go through the Iris test at Chaman border,” Mr Baloch said and added that the UNHCR had provided modern equipment for the purpose.

He said 1.8 million Afghan refugees living in the country would repatriate in three years under an agreement signed by Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR last month. He said 600,000 refugees would return this year. Over 400,000 refugees were living in Balochistan, he said.

Most of those who left belong to Kabul, Ghazni and Helmand provinces.

“I am going back to my country with my five-member family,” Abdul Ahmed, 47, belonging to Ghazani, told Dawn at the centre. “I am a mason and I will take part in rebuilding my country, which was destroyed by different forces,” he said and added that he would remember Pakistan for its hospitality.

However, truck drivers taking refugees to Afghanistan said looting was continuing in different areas there. “Even Afghan officials are not sparing the drivers and they are snatching money,” Abdul Rehman told this correspondent. He said warlords had established their own checkpoints to extort money from the drivers and other people.

“I always pay money at the check posts, even in Kabul,” Sur Gul, another driver, said.

The UNHCR spokesman also confirmed such incidents in Afghanistan and said: “Some areas of Afghanistan are still under trouble.”