INCLUSION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES IN THE NATIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEMS OF IRAN AND PAKISTAN

Afghans began to flee to Iran and Pakistan in 1979 when war broke out in their home country. Currently, there are about one million Afghan refugees in Iran and 1.4 million in Pakistan (UNHCR 2018a; UNHCR 2018b). The majority of them were born in their countries of asylum and have never been to Afghanistan (ICMPD 2017, p. 7). Yet, the preferred solution of the Iranian and Pakistani Governments is for Afghans to repatriate (Zetter and Ruaduel 2016, p. 74; Tyler 2014, p. 19). In addition to registered refugees, it is estimated that there are also between 1.5 and two million undocumented Afghans in Iran and one million in Pakistan (ICMPD 2017, p. 5; Samuel Hall 2017, p. 5). Many of these undocumented Afghans have valid international protection needs, but were unable to receive or maintain refugee status from their host countries (Zetter and Ruaudel 2016, p. 74)