Over 1,500 Afghan refugee families return home in single day

KABUL, July 21 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,500 Afghan refugee families returned to their homeland, Afghanistan, from the neighboring Iran and Pakistan in a single day on Saturday, reported the state-owned Bakhtar news agency on Sunday.

A total of 1,576 refugee families returned to Afghanistan on Saturday, and out of these, 81 families returned from Pakistan and the remaining 1,495 families returned from Iran, the official media outlet added.

All the returnees have received necessary assistance at the crossing points, the news agency further said.

The return of Afghan refugees has gained momentum over the past couple of months as the host countries have asked the undocumented migrants to leave.

More than 1.3 million Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland over the past year, and only in June, some 600,000 Afghan refugees reportedly returned from Iran.■