1. Reported Stateless Persons
In 2022, Papua New Guinea reported 9 stateless persons to UNHCR, an increase of 1 person since 2021. Papua New Guinea only started reporting population numbers to UNHCR at the start of 2020 at 14 stateless persons. UNHCR noted that for each year, the reported numbers do not estimate the entire stateless population and only constitutes Rohingya refugees in PNG. Without legislation for a stateless identification procedure, data on the number of stateless persons is largely unavailable.
2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness
Children born to foreign or non-refugee stateless parents within the territory may be at risk of statelessness, if not eligible for citizenship elsewhere as the country does not have any provisions to provide citizenship to them.
3. Stateless Refugee
All of the stateless persons reported to UNHCR by PNG are stateless Rohingya refugees.
4. Undetermined Nationalities
Concerns have previously been expressed by UNHCR and other civil society organizations regarding the potential statelessness of West Papuan refugees in Papua New Guinea, who due to absence from West Papua have lost their Indonesian citizenship and have been unable to access Papua New Guinean citizenship through naturalization. The Immigration and Citizenship Authority of Papua New Guinea has estimated that there are between 10-15,000 Indonesian Papuans living in the country. While there have been reports in recent years of some West Papuan refugees accessing citizenship, this does not appear to be universal, In 2021, the US Department of State reported that no Indonesian Papuans had been granted citizenship that year.
