By Alan Johnston BBC correspondent in Kabul

As the anniversary of the fall of the Taleban regime approaches, Afghans are continuing to pour back into the country.

Millions have left over the decades to escape first the Russian invasion, then the civil war, and then the Taleban.

Around 10,000 Afghans are currently coming home every week.

Up to now, the majority of those returning have come across the border with Pakistan.

But the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says fresh figures show the influx from Iran is now greater than the flow across the Pakistani frontier.

Many people survived in cramped conditions with very little food

Exile

Just a few hours after crossing the Iranian frontier, bus loads of returning Afghans make their first stop at a reception camp near the city of Herat.

There are ranks of tents flapping in the wind that comes howling off the desert.

It is a grim scene, but for many, these are the first moments back on Afghan soil after years in exile, and the emotion can be overwhelming.

Akram Aslami broke down as he talked of how it felt to be home.

Like many others, he and his family fled the rule of the Taleban four years ago.

They settled near Teheran, but Akram always struggled to find good work.

Social exclusion

Although he is an electrician, he could only ever get jobs as a labourer and sometimes he worked 18 hours a day.

Another returnee, standing nearby said, although he was an experienced hospital radiologist, he could only get work in Iran as a domestic servant.

The Afghans found themselves at the bottom of the social heap in Iran and Akram said his worst memory was the day his family were thrown out of their home by an angry landlord.

On the other hand, Akram said the Iranian education system was good for his children.

Now Iran is keen for the Afghans to go home and it is putting pressure on the refugees to leave.

Many Afghans say they struggled to find work in their host country

At the same time, new opportunities are opening up in Afghanistan.

Akram is confident there will be jobs for a good electrician like him as the nation reconstructs after decades of war.

He is convinced this is the right time to end his hard years in exile and come home to what he believes is a country with a future.