Over 50,000 Afghan refugees return home: UNHCR

KABUL and Iran so far this year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.

From January-August, UNHCR helped an average of 213 refugees repatriate every day compared to 190 a year earlier, the organization said in a statement.

Of the 50,000 returnees this year, some 40,000 came from Pakistan and just over 10,000 from Iran.

About a third of the returning refugees went to Kabul and Nangarhar, with about 11 percent heading to Kunduz province in the north. The other most popular destinations were Herat, Baghlan, Kunar, Kandahar, Paktya, Balkh, Logar and Laghman provinces.

More than 5.7 million people have returned to Afghanistan government in 2001, including some 4.6 million with UNHCR help.

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