Zahedan -- Over 11,500 Afghan Refugees have returned home from the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan since a UN-sponsored plan to encourage the repatriation of refugees from Iran.

Safar Eslami, the head of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs in Zahedan, said here Tuesday the Afghans had returned home in over 2,300 families.

Eslami said the Afghans had been repatriated through the Milak and Dougharoun border checkpoints, respectively in Sistan-Baluchestan and the northeastern province of Khorasan.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghans is governed by a tripartite accord signed in Geneva on April 3 by Iran, Afghanistan and the UNHCR which envisages the repatriation of 400,000 nationals of that country by the end of the current year.

Since the implementation of the plan, all legal and political grounds for the continued stay of Afghan refugees in Iran have been removed and nationals of that country who remain are no longer subject to the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees.

Afghan refugees will be required to present passports and valid visas to enter Iran as of the date of the accord, and illegal entrants will be dealt with according to the laws of the land.

Iran has been sheltering more than two million Afghan refugees fleeing from civil wars and severe drought in Afghanistan over the past two decades.