ISLAMABAD: More than 380,000 registered Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan this year, the highest number since 2007, the United Nations said on Friday, adding it handed out $135 million in cash assistance in the last three months alone.

Fears of a crackdown on refugees in Pakistan along with a doubling of the UN’s cash grant for voluntary returnees to $400 saw a surge over the border after July this year, the UN has said.

“These are unprecedented numbers we did not anticipate. In October alone some 148,000 returned, which is the highest number of returns in one month since August 2005,” UNHCR spokesman Duniya Aslam Khan said.

At one point, the UNHCR was processing an average of 5,500 refugees per day, she added.

The UNHCR said on Friday the voluntary repatriation would be halted from Dec 1 for a routine winter break, resuming in March. The break will also allow the agency time to mobilise additional resources, Ms Khan said.

Published in Dawn December 3rd, 2016