1. Reported Stateless Population
Countries in East Asia collectively reported a stateless population of 766 people to UNHCR in 2022, a decrease of 60 people from reported numbers in 2021. Before 2021, the reported population stayed generally the same since 2019. Mongolia has consistently reported 17 stateless persons to the UNHCR since 2019, excluding that the country did not report any stateless persons in 2020. Three of the seven countries in the region reported small populations — Japan (508), Mongolia (17) and South Korea (241) — while China and Hong Kong reported zero persons and North Korea and Taiwan were not included in the report. While Hong Kong, like China, has not reported a stateless population to UNHCR for the past five years, the region did report one stateless person in 2015. Despite the low figures reported by South Korea to UNHCR, a recent mapping report found that as many 10,032 stateless reasons could be residing within South Korea. UNHCR has specifically noted China as a country in which they have information regarding stateless people but no reliable data. There is also a lack of reliable data in Mongolia and South Korea. While no UNHCR estimates exist for Taiwan, sources state that there could be as many as 10,000 stateless children in the country.
2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness
Official birth registration statistics for Taiwan are unknown, but all states in East Asia have high reported rates of birth registration between 90-100%. However, the impact of household registration systems prevalent in East Asia and administrative policies complicates the picture, especially for children of irregular migrants. China, South Korea, and to a lesser extent Japan, have notable issues of children of irregular migrants and trafficked persons being unable or unwilling to access birth registration. For example, there may be as many as 30,000 children born in China to North Korean mothers who had been trafficked into China, and 20,000 children of irregular migrants in South Korea who remain unregistered and at risk of statelessness. Due to systemic discrimination, particularly the denial of the right to a passport and freedom of movement, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and other ethnic Muslim minorities in China are also at risk of statelessness. As Taiwan hosts a large population of undocumented migrant workers, children born to migrant workers in Taiwan may be stateless due to a lack of documentation. In Japan, Zainichi Koreans and children of Indochinese refugees from Thailand are also at risk of statelessness.
3. Stateless Refugee
As a subregion, East Asia has a relatively small refugee population compared to other subregions of the Asia-Pacific. For example, Japan reported 9 stateless refugees to the UNHCR in 2022. A newspaper article from 2016 highlighted the growing numbers of stateless children born to refugees in Hong Kong. Many of these refugees lack identification documents, which further contributes to intergenerational statelessness.
4. Undetermined Nationalities
While the reported figures of stateless populations may be low in East Asia, thousands of individuals remain with undetermined nationalities. China’s 2010 census indicated that at least 13 million children lacked household registration (hukou), which prevented them from accessing the full rights of citizens. In Japan’s 2020 census, the nationalities of 131,684 foreigners were categorized as “stateless and name of country not reported.” Japan is the only country in East Asia with English-language and publicly accessible census statistics that include a stateless/undetermined citizenship status of foreigners.
The status of ethnic minority groups in both Japan and Mongolia remains uncertain. In Japan, as many as 26,312 ethnic Koreans are categorized as “citizens of the Korean Peninsula (Korea or Chōsen)” and hold the status of “special permanent residents.” In Mongolia, thousands of ethnic Kazakhs have faced administrative barriers to reacquiring citizenship, which they lost in the early 1990s.
