Aynuddin Muradi has been a citizen of Kazakhstan for years, but he now faces deportation to his country of birth, Afghanistan.
Kazakh authorities in May stripped the 27-year-old of his citizenship on the grounds that he is not ethnic Kazakh, a claim he denies.
Muradi, who is appealing the decision, gave up his Afghan nationality when he gained Kazakh citizenship in 2019. Citizens of the Central Asian country are not allowed to hold dual nationality.
Now, Muradi -- whose child was born in Kazakhstan -- is effectively stateless.
"I will not give up on my country [Kazakhstan]," Muradi, who speaks fluent Kazakh, told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service. "I will not move to another country."
He is not alone. Dozens of ethnic Kazakhs from Afghanistan have been stripped of their citizenship by Astana in the past two years over doubts about their ethnicity.
Resettlement Program
Kazakhstan offers citizenship to ethnic Kazakhs who emigrate from abroad. Over 1 million ethnic Kazakhs from neighboring countries have moved to the oil-rich Central Asian country since the 1990s.
According to official figures, some 13,000 ethnic Kazakhs from Afghanistan have immigrated to Kazakhstan since the country gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Kazakh authorities say there are only several hundred ethnic Kazakhs remaining in Afghanistan. But ethnic Kazakhs in Afghanistan estimate the number is much higher.
Many members of the ethnic Kazakh community speak Dari or Uzbek and live among ethnic Uzbek communities in northern Afghanistan. Most of them reside in rural areas and are engaged in livestock farming.
'Not A Kazakh'
Muradi is a native of Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz. He moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, in 2016 to attend university. Muradi, who lives in central Karaganda Province, later got married in Kazakhstan.
Last year, he was informed by the authorities that his citizenship was being revoked because the Kazakh Embassy in Kabul determined that he was "not Kazakh but Uzbek," without offering details. In May, a local court upheld the decision.
Muradi is appealing against the decision but faces an uphill battle to prove he is ethnic Kazakh.
Bakhyt Sarai, director of the nongovernmental Elsana Amanat Foundation, which helps Afghans trying to reclaim their Kazakh citizenship, said Astana has revoked the citizenship of some 250 Afghans in recent years.
In 2023, she said, the Kazakh Embassy in Kabul shared with Astana a list of Kazakh citizens originally from Afghanistan whom it suspected were not ethnic Kazakhs.
Sarai said many of those whose citizenship had been revoked have married in Kazakhstan and their children were born there. Many have become stateless and are likely to be forced to return to Afghanistan, she said.
"They are afraid of returning to Afghanistan because their children cannot study or integrate into society," Sarai told RFE/RL.
In comments to RFE/RL, Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry said it had received information "from authorized bodies" that those stripped of Kazakh citizenship "did not belong to the Kazakh nationality" and that these individuals "presented false documents confirming their Kazakh nationality."
The ministry added that these individuals must return to Afghanistan to obtain a passport and legalize their stay in Kazakhstan.
Among those who lost their Kazakh citizenship is Abdul Khalil Najibullah.
The 56-year-old said he lost his farm and business in Kazakhstan after he was stripped of his citizenship in 2021. He said he was accused of lying about his ethnicity, which he denies.
Najibullah first moved to Kazakhstan in 2000 from the northern Afghan province of Faryab, where he was born. He has appealed against the decision and is fighting his case in court.
"I have repeatedly asked how I can live without any documents," Najibullah, who still resides in Kazakhstan, said of his appeals to the Kazakh authorities. "I was told that this is my problem [not theirs]."
