Machar Colony is one of the largest informal settlements in Karachi, Pakistan. It is home to more than 800,000 inhabitants, of which 68% are ethnic Bengalis and Burmese and face marginalisation due to being stateless.

The international legal definition of a stateless person is “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.” In simple terms, this means that a stateless person does not have the nationality of any country. Some people are born stateless, while others become stateless at some point in their life.

The stateless community residing in Machar Colony faces several challenges, including:

• Not having access to the public education system or higher education system
• Not having access to quality, public healthcare
• Improper sanitation and waste management
• Limited job opportunities, seasonal employment and workplace discrimination
• Police harassment
• Inherited statelessness, leaving the future of stateless residents’ children unsure
• High reliance on the use of unofficial ‘agents’ to obtain identity documents, increasing the chances of later issues

Pakistan’s citizenship law states that anyone born in Pakistan is entitled to be a citizen of the country. But unfortunately, ethnic discrimination and incomplete implementation of this law has left more than a million children in the country stateless. With 68% of the community facing statelessness, children between the ages of 5-15 represent the largest age group deprived of their right to access opportunities for learning and growth.