More than 170,000 Afghan refugees return home in 42 days

KABUL, May 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 170,000 Afghan refugees have returned to their home country over the past 42 days, spokesman for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation Abdul Mutalib Haqqani said.

"A total of 170,937 refugees returned to their country, Afghanistan, from April 1 to May 12, and out of these, 128,048 refugees returned from Pakistan, and the remaining from Iran and Türkiye," the local private media outlet Tolonews quoted Haqqani on Thursday night as saying.

Pakistan, according to the official, has also released 3,372 Afghan nationals from prisons over the period and repatriated them to their homeland.

Nearly 2 million Afghan refugees, mostly from the neighboring Pakistan and Iran, have returned to Afghanistan over the past year and the return of refugees continues. Enditem