Pakistan –“I managed to sneak inside school today. My teachers said I must not return to class. There is nothing they can do about my situation,” confided Noor, a young Afghan boy living in Balochistan, Pakistan.
At only nine years old, Noor’s world turned upside down with the announcement of the Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan (IFRP) by the Government of Pakistan in October 2023, seeking to “repatriate” Afghans from Pakistan in three phases.
Under the first phase of the IFRP, over one million foreigners without valid documents, largely Afghans, were given the deadline of 1 November 2023 to leave Pakistan or else face deportation. The second and third phases of the IFRP affect the deportation of Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) and Proof of Registration (PoR) holders respectively.