RAWALPINDI, June 10: Pakistan continues to be the main asylum country followed by Iran. By the end of 2005, both countries together hosted one out of five (21 per cent) of the world’s refugees. Both, however, experienced a 16 and 32 per cent decrease respectively during the year as a result of the voluntary repatriation of some 751,000 Afghan refugees, according to statistics released by UNHCR.

The past four years saw an almost unprecedented level of voluntary repatriation, mainly due to the return of more than 4.6 million Afghans from Pakistan and Iran.

Globally, more than six million refugees were able to return home during 2002-2005, of which 4.6 million with UNHCR assistance, says 2005 Global Refugee Trend released on 9 June.

Afghanistan continues to be by far the largest country of origin of refugees under the mandate of UNHCR.

At the end of 2005, 1.9 million Afghan refugees were reported by 72 asylum countries, constituting 23 per cent of the global refugee population. Nevertheless, due to continued repatriation, the number of Afghan refugees dropped by 21 per cent during the year.

Based on consolidated reports from countries of asylum (departure) and origin (arrival), it is estimated that some 1.1 million refugees repatriated voluntarily to their country of origin during 2005.

With over two million persons, Colombia remained the country hosting the largest population of concern to UNHCR by the end of 2005. The entire population is almost exclusively comprised of internally displaced persons.

Iraq is the second largest host country with some 1.6 million persons of concern, followed by Pakistan (1.1 million), Sudan (1.0 million) and Afghanistan (912,000).

By the end of 2005, the global number of refugees reached an estimated 8.4 million persons, the lowest level since 1980. This constitutes a net decrease of more than one million refugees (-12 per cent) since the beginning of 2005, when 9.5 million refugees were recorded.

This is the fifth consecutive year in which the global refugee population has dropped and the second sharpest decrease since 2001.

Over the five-year period, the global refugee population has fallen by one third (-31 per cent).

Decreases in the refugee population are often the result of refugees having access to durable solutions, in particular voluntary repatriation.