115,000 Afghan refugees repatriate from Pakistan and Iran

Haqqani said cash and food have been distributed to the Afghan returnees

KABUL:

Approximately 115,000 Afghan refugees have returned to homeland from neighboring Pakistan and Iran over the past one month, the country's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation has said.

"In the past month, nearly 115,000 Afghan citizens have returned from Pakistan and Iran," local media TOLOnews channel quoted Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, the spokesman of the ministry, as saying.

Haqqani said cash and food have been distributed to the returnees.

Over 2.5 million Afghan refugees have reportedly been living in Pakistan and about the same number in Iran.

The Afghan caretaker government has been urging Afghan migrants living abroad to return home and contribute to rebuilding their war-ravaged country. 

Previously, Pakistan's federal cabinet extended the validity period of the ‘Proof of Registration (POR) cards’ issued to the Afghan refugees in the country for three months and green-lit the establishment of an additional special court in Makran division to deal with anti-narcotics cases in Balochistan.

The cabinet was informed that the POR card holders would be repatriated in the third phase of the programme to repatriate illegal aliens from Pakistan. However, the first phase of repatriation programme was ongoing.