KABUL, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) would continue to support the Afghan returnees in building shelters, a statement of the body said Monday.

    "As the year of 2009 draws to a close, the UN refugee agency is nearing completion of a shelter program benefiting more than 50,000 returnees this year," the statement added.

    Out of the more than 8,000 shelters planned in 2009, some 7,000beneficiary families have been selected and construction is ongoing, the statement said.

    It said that, "Since 2002 until the end of Sept. 2009, UNHCR has provided shelter assistance to almost 190,000 vulnerable returnees families, benefiting an estimated 1.2 million returnees, mainly in rural areas across the country."

    UNHCR's reintegration program will continue for the next two years, especially in the shelter sector.

    Meantime, the statement stressed that the long-term reintegration process of returnees requires continued support of the Afghan government.

    "The longer-term reintegration of returnees will need the continued support of the Afghan government and development actors, particularly in the field of urban housing and water management, "it emphasized.

    More than 4.3 million Afghans, according to the statement, have been assisted by UNHCR to return home since 2002, including 3.4 million from Pakistan and over 865,000 from Iran.

    Millions of Afghans had been forced to leave their homes during the 1979-89 ex-Soviet Union occupation and factional fighting tore Afghanistan from 1991 until the collapse of Taliban regime in late2001 and still over 3 million Afghans are said to have been living abroad mostly in Pakistan and Iran.