By Frances Harrison BBC correspondent in Colombo

More than 213,000 internally-displaced people in Sri Lanka have returned home so far this year, the UN refugee agency says.

Officials say a time lag in collecting information may well mean the real figure is much higher.

Some of the refugees are so desperate to return home that they are risking their lives on unsafe boats

This means a quarter of Sri Lankan refugees have spontaneously gone home despite the lack of a proper programme to facilitate their return.

According to UNHCR, more than half the refugees have gone back to Jaffna, but there is also some movement to east coast towns like Trincomalee and Batticaloa as well as within rebel areas.

UNHCR say the general trend is constantly increasing numbers of returnees, but they stress these are estimates based on figures from government agents.

The UN has also seen some people spontaneously returning from southern India because of the optimism generated by the peace process this year.

Desperate

Those who can afford it and have documents come by plane and the others come illegally by small boats.

Refugee officials say several people have drowned trying to return with their families in boats that have no life-jackets for which they pay large sums of money.

Many refugees are still living in camps

The ones who make it tend to get stranded in places like Mannar and are then picked up either by the navy or fishermen.

Officially, UNHCR says there are more than 1,000 refugees who have returned from India but anecdotal evidence they have received suggests the figure may be higher.

UNHCR says there has been no decision yet about what to do with the refugees in camps in southern India though discussions are continuing.

But it seems some of the refugees are so desperate to return home that they are risking their lives on unsafe boats in the absence of any organised alternative.

Some want to start farming again in areas that have not yet been certified clear of landmines.