TEHRAN -- More than 143,000 Afghans have returned home from Iran and Pakistan, since 1 January, said UNHCR in a press release in United Nations on Wednesday .

"Some 30,000 Afghans have returned via the Islam Qala crossing point, staff on Afghanistan's western frontier with Iran report, while another 113,000 have crossed homewards over Pakistan's Chaman and Torkham crossing points."

"Most of these spontaneous returnees are from Afghanistan's minority ethnic communities - principally ethnic Tajiks. Many of returnees over the past weeks are single men who apparently regularly return home regardless of developments inside Afghanistan," the press release said.