Over 2,000 Afghan refugees return from Balochistan

"Some 2,874 families comprising of 14,087 individuals have been repatriated since January 2012 from Balochistan," The News quoted UNHCR Senior Protection Officer Balochistan chapter, Tayba Sharif, as saying.

Sharif said the trend of voluntarily repatriation has increased to 39 per cent compared to previous year as under the voluntary repatriation process. The UNHCR had supported over 50,000 Afghan refugees so far during the current year while the number of repatriated refugees last year was 32,000, the paper said. Sharif said so far the UNHCR has facilitated the voluntary return of more than 3.7 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan since 2002, adding that the return process is purely on voluntarily basis and every person opting to return is advised to make a well informed decision.