Over 5000 Afghan refugee families return to homeland in single day

Over 5000 Afghan refugee families returned to their homeland, Afghanistan, in a single day yesterday. Most of them are from Iran.  The massive scale return of refugees continues amid the Afghan interim government’s call on the host country, Iran, to exercise restraint and slow down the refugees’ expulsion. Tehran has asked the Afghan nationals living in Iran illegally to leave the country. In a recent statement, the Office of the Prime Minister of Afghanistan’s interim government expressed gratitude to Iran for hosting Afghan refugees over the past four decades and called for continued respect for the rights of refugees. More than half a million Afghan refugees have reportedly returned to their country from Iran over the past month.