UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Since the beginning of this year, 1.7 million Afghan citizens have returned to the country from Iran and Pakistan, a UN spokesman said Friday.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told a daily briefing that most of the returnees have limited ties to the local communities and are struggling to find shelter and economic opportunities, and the host communities themselves also lack adequate services and resources.

To support the response, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund recently released 10 million U.S. dollars, and additional funding is in the pipeline from the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund, he said.

The humanitarian community in Afghanistan is already preparing for another influx of returnees following the Pakistani government's deadline for Afghan Proof of Registration cardholders to leave the country by Sept. 1, he said.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than half of Afghanistan's population needs vital aid, with women and girls under especially vulnerable conditions.

OCHA stressed that additional funding is urgently needed to support the Afghan people, Dujarric said.

This year's Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is just 25 percent funded, with 624 million dollars received of the 2.4 billion dollars needed, according to the spokesman. ■