The Northern Ireland woman who was freed in Afghanistan last week after being held hostage for almost in month left Kabul today on a UN flight.
Ms Annetta Flanigan is expected to spend a few days on holiday before re-joining her family according to a UN spokesperson.
Another hostage Ms Shquipe Hebibi from Kosovo also left today, while the third UN worker held in captivity with them, Filipino diplomat Mr Angelito Nayan returned to Manila last week.
The SDLP's Mr Dominic Bradley today spoke of the joy across Armagh as Ms Flanigan makes her journey home.
Mr Bradley said: "It is now only a matter of time before Annetta is back at her family home in Richhill. The people of Armagh are delighted to know that Annetta is coming back to the warm welcome of her family."
Meanwhile the group that held the three has threatened more abductions unless a promise to release Taliban prisoners in exchange was fulfilled. The group, the Jaish-e Muslimeen, threatened to kidnap more foreigners if authorities did not release 24 members of the former Taliban regime now being held in jail. It said the prisoners were to have been released in exchange for the freedom of the three UN workers last week.
None of the hostages has given details about their captivity or how they came to be freed.
The three workers were abducted from a Kabul street on October 28th after helping run presidential elections won by Mr Hamid Karzai, raising fears among the foreign community in Afghanistan of a wave of Iraq-style kidnappings.
The government says it does not believe the trio were ever held by Jaish, but the group may have hired a criminal gang that carried out the abductions. On Friday, a former British journalist who runs a guest house in Kabul said he had helped negotiate the release of the hostages by passing on an offer of a $1.5 million ransom to Jaish from Kosovan businessman Behgjet Pacolli via an intermediary.
However, the former journalist, Mr Peter Jouvenal, said he did not think the money had been paid and Jaish has denied receiving any ransom, or demanding one. Mr Pacolli has denied paying any ransom.
A government official said last week he understood the hostages were freed after the payment of a ransom, but he did not know by whom it was paid or to whom. The United States had warned against any compromise with the hostage takers, saying any deal would provoke more kidnappings. The Interior Ministry has denied that any deal was struck.