Australia has deported a group of 113 Afghan asylum-seekers it was holding in detention on the Pacific island state of Nauru.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said that nearly half of the 1,500 asylum-seekers held in Nauru and Papua New Guinea had now returned home.

The latest of these, 110 men, one woman and two children flew into Kabul on Sunday.

Under the repatriation scheme, each receives A$2,000 (US$1,000) in return for abandoning their asylum claim,

There was a very keen welcome from family members

Philip Ruddock Australian immigration minister

They had been held on Nauru in a multi-million dollar deal with the Australian Government for about a year after Australia began halting boatloads of asylum-seekers at sea, refusing to allow them to enter its own territory.

The minister said the government was considering further repatriation flights once the Afghan Government issued the necessary ID papers for the detainees.

Australia's "Pacific Solution", whereby boat people arriving from Indonesia were taken to off-shore detention camps to have their claims for refugee status assessed, provoked controversy.

Of the 219 Afghans on the Tampa, only 32 received asylum

At one stage, human rights group Amnesty International described the Nauru processing camp as "hellish and barren".

The tough policy was introduced in August 2001 when Australia refused to accept about 400 mainly Afghan asylum-seekers rescued from a sinking boat in the Indian Ocean by a Norwegian freighter, the Tampa.

There remain 820 refugees in the detention camps on Nauru and PNG's Manus Island, including Iraqis, Iranians, Sri Lankans and Turks as well as Afghans.

Mr Ruddock suggested it was safe for Afghans who had fled the Taleban regime and war in their country to return home:

"On the first occasion that we arranged for people to get home to Kabul, there was a very keen welcome from family members and even government members present to receive them back."

Timorese refugees

On a separate issue, the minister confirmed that Australia was investigating 170 asylum-seekers granted temporary permission to stay in the country after it was claimed that they were from Pakistan, not Afghanistan, and therefore not genuine refugees.

He also announced that Australia would consider allowing some of the 1,500 asylum-seekers who have arrived from East Timor since 1991 to stay on on compassionate grounds despite the tiny state achieving independence this year.

"Those people who are found not to be refugees will need to have very clear, compassionate reasons advanced if they are to stay," said Mr Ruddock.