¡¡¡¡TEHRAN, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- More than 377,000 Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland from Iran since the implementation of a UN-sponsored repatriation plan last April, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

¡¡¡¡A spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Iran has confirmed the figure, the IRNA said.

¡¡¡¡The repatriation has been carried out under an accord signed by Iran, Afghanistan and the UNHCR in Geneva last April, which envisions the repatriation of 400,000 Afghan refugees from Iran each year.

¡¡¡¡According to a report released by the World Food Program, Iran is hosting about 2.65 million refugees, including 2.35 million Afghans, 203,000 Iraqis.

¡¡¡¡Most of the Afghan refugees fled to Iran after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the following civil war in the 1990s.

¡¡¡¡The Iranian government has planned to repatriate some 500,000 Afghan refugees during the next Iranian year beginning on coming March 21. Enditem