ZAHEDAN, Sistan and Baluchestan Province -- The director of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs of Sistan and Baluchestan province said here Sunday that over 200,000 Afghan refugees in the province have participated in the foreign alien registration program since it began.

Safar Eslami said that the project began on June 22 and will continue until September 22, IRNA reported. He added that following the registration drive "only those individuals who have received computerized identity cards will be recognized as refugees."

The rest will be illegal and subject to immigration laws and possible deportation, he stated.

Over 500,000 Afghan refugees are residing in the province Eslami said, adding since the beginning of the volunteer repatriation program of Afghan refugees over 400,000 refugees have been repatriated to their homeland from Iran.

"Of the figure, 56,000 were Afghans living in this southeastern province," he added.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees is supervised by the governments of Iran and Afghanistan and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Head of Iran's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs, Ahmad Hosseini, said in January that 600,000 Afghans will voluntarily return home in the Iranian year of 1382 which started on March 21, 2003.

The remaining refugees will be repatriated by the end of 1383, Hosseini said. "Planning has been made in such a way that the file of Afghan refugees in Iran will be closed by the end of 1383," he said.

According to a World Food Program report last year, Iran has played host to about 2.65 million refugees since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including 2.35 million Afghans, 203,000 Iraqis and 5,000 nationals of other countries.