UNHCR: 110,000 AFGHAN REFUGEES RETURNED IN MARCH - 2002-03-29

The U-N refugee agency says during March some 110-thousand Afghan refugees returned home voluntarily with U-N assistance through a repatriation program. It requires Afghan refugees to sign up at a registration center where they are given a transportation allowance and food vouchers.

Most of the refugees have been processed at a center near the Pakistani border city of Peshawar. The U-N agency hopes to open such centers in all four provinces of Pakistan.

The agency estimates that more than 400-thousand Afghans will return home from Pakistan this year. In Geneva Thursday, the U-N agency said it will sign a deal next week with Iran to begin a similar repatriation program for refugees in Iran, beginning April ninth.

There are nearly four million Afghans living in refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran.