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Afghan refugees arrive at Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, July 13, 2019. A total of 245,405 Afghan refugees have returned from neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran to their homeland since January, said a statement of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released here Thursday. (Xinhua/Sanaullah Seiam)

KABUL, July 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 245,405 Afghan refugees have returned from neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran to their homeland since January, said a statement of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released here Thursday.

The returned refugees included 233,619 persons from Iran and 11,786 refugees from Pakistan, the IOM statement said.

"IOM Afghanistan has assisted a total of 25,290 undocumented Afghans returning from Iran and Pakistan since 01 January 2019," the IOM noted on the statement.

More than 849,000 Afghan refugees out of more than 4 million refugees had returned or been deported to Afghanistan in 2018 mainly from neighboring countries, according to figures from the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation Affairs.