Ethnic Kazakhs from Pakistan ask for repatriation to Kazakhstan

About 300 ethnic Kazakhs living in Pakistan have appealed to the Kazakh authorities for help in returning to their historical homeland. They claim that Pakistani authorities intend to deport them back to Afghanistan, from where they fled two years ago, ZTB.kz reports.

According to Khamit Zhorabay, the Kazakh community in Pakistan has already contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, but has not received any assistance so far. Currently, about 40 Kazakh families with roughly 100 children live in Karachi. Their main problem is the lack of official IDs. Without passports and birth certificates, children cannot attend school and adults cannot confirm their Kazakh origin.

«Our children can’t get an education as no local school accepts them without documents. We all want to go to Kazakhstan,» said Khamit. «We are Kazakhs, we speak Kazakh, we pass on our culture to our children. To confirm our origins, we are told to return to Afghanistan, but this is life-threatening. We cannot do this. We had DNA tests taken to confirm that we are Kazakhs twice. The results were positive, so we are all waiting for help.»

The absence of documents is not the only difficulty ethnic Kazakhs face in Pakistan. They also have little or no access to gas, electricity and clean water. Khamit says they worry most about their children, as their future remains uncertain.

He also claimed that the Kazakh ambassador to Pakistan has already visited their community in Karachi, inspected their living conditions, and promised help. However, the expected support has not arrived, and the issue of repatriation remains unresolved.

At the time of publication, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan had not responded to Kursiv.media’s request for comment. Meanwhile, more than 90,000 foreigners have obtained Kazakh citizenship over the past four years, as Kazakhstan remains open to people from CIS countries and beyond who wish to acquire citizenship.