ISLAMABAD, June 19: The UN refugee agency has started repatriating thousands of Afghans from a tribal region where the military has battled militants linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, officials have said.

Pakistan has ordered the closure of all camps in restive South and North Waziristan on the Afghan border where an estimated 38,000 Afghans are living in camps, by the end of June.

The vast majority have agreed to return to Afghanistan voluntarily, while the rest would be relocated to other camps, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)said.

“Everything is going smoothly. Some 85 per cent of Afghan refugees in North Waziristan want to repatriate. There have been no problems so far,” UNHCR spokesman Jack Redden told AFP.

The UNHCR has said it was aware of the security concerns in the region.

“UNHCR has supported the decision, noting that the unrest in the area has made it very difficult to provide services and that Afghans who do not wish to repatriate are being offered the option to remain in Pakistan,” it said in a statement.

They would be settled at another site outside Waziristan which would be announced later this month by Pakistan.

Pakistan has also decided to close by August 31 two refugee camps with an estimated population of 63,000 in southwest Balochistan.

The UNHCR said on Friday it would end assistance to refugees camped in the Jungle Pir Alizai and Girdi Jungle and would again offer residents a choice of repatriation or relocation to another camp.

The refugee agency said it was focusing first on closing camps where the government has security problems and humanitarian agencies have difficulties in access and security.

The UNHCR has assisted 2.4 million Afghans to return from Pakistan since the voluntary repatriation programme started in 2002. So far this year, more than 122,000 Afghans have gone home from Pakistan, and the UNHCR estimates up to 400,000 could repatriate by the end of 2005.

A joint Pakistan-UN census, the results of which were released in May, said more than three million Afghans were still in Pakistan more than 25 years after an initial exodus prompted by the Soviet invasion in 1979.—AFP