Kabul, Sep 7 (IANS) More than 30,000 Afghan refugees from Pakistan, Iran and Turkey returned to their homeland last week, an official of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation said.
Ministry spokesman Abdul Himaq Haqqani said on Friday that of the refugees who returned to their homeland, about 2,500 were from Pakistan, about 190 from Turkey and the rest from Iran.
According to the ministry, a total of 1.78 million Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland from abroad over the past year, news agency Xinhua reported, citing local media outlet Tolonews.
The caretaker government of Afghanistan has repeatedly called on Afghan refugees to stop living as refugees abroad and return home to contribute to the reconstruction of their war-torn homeland.
Last month, the ministry announced that a total of 1,779,603 Afghan refugees had returned to their homeland from Pakistan, Iran and other countries during the 12 months.
“It is noteworthy that currently, we have 7 million refugees living abroad and 3 million displaced inside Afghanistan,” Mawlawi Abdul Rahman Rashid, the ministry’s deputy minister, said at a government event.
According to Ahadi, the ministry has signed 93 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with its partner organisations, seven agencies and 14 educational institutions during this period to address problems faced by Afghan migrants and returnees.
He further said that in collaboration with international aid organisations, over 7,88,000 Afghan internally displaced and returnee families have received financial, food and non-food aid during the said period.
–IANS
PSK/GKT
