Born and Raised in Pakistan, but Living in Legal Limbo

Pakistan has refused to grant the children of Afghan refugees full rights as citizens. A lack of identification documents limits their livelihoods and puts them at risk of deportation.

KARACHI, Pakistan — For these four young people, Pakistan is home. They were born and raised there. They have big plans: to study, to open their own businesses, to succeed.

But Pakistan says their home is elsewhere. Each of the four — a lab technician, a web developer, a jewelry maker, a former welder with dreams of travel — was born to parents from Afghanistan who fled to Pakistan because of war and persecution.

The children have been in legal limbo all their lives, at risk of deportation to a strife-torn country they have never seen.