1. Reported Stateless Persons
In 2022, States in South Asia reported 974,443 stateless persons to UNHCR representing an increase of over 30,000 persons in the last year. Bangladesh is the largest hosting country both within South Asia and the Asia-Pacific broadly with a population of 952,309 stateless persons. Afghanistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives did not report stateless populations in the past five years of reporting to UNHCR. All other States (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) only provided statistics covering forcibly displaced (refugee) stateless populations, with no States providing figures on in situ stateless populations. UNHCR has noted that, regarding Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, ‘UNHCR has information about stateless persons but no reliable data’. Known stateless populations not included in the UNHCR reporting figures include the Lhostshampa of Bhutan, ethnic Bengalis, and long-term Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness
Millions of Afghans have fled Afghanistan due to wars and persecution in the country, with over 6.4 million Afghan refugees, persons in refugee-like situations, or asylum-seekers globally at the end of 2022. Due to loss or denial of identity documents, the children of many Afghan refugees and asylum seekers are at risk of statelessness. Further, a lack of access to identity documentation has rendered potentially millions of women in Afghanistan at risk of statelessness. A 2016 study found that 52% of women in general held no identity documentation, with this rate increasing to 75% among female IDPs.
There are a number of different population groups in India at risk of statelessness, including Tibetan and Sri Lankan refugees, ethnic minority groups living in border regions (including the Chakma, Hjong, and Kutchi communities), and former Kashmiri militants. Ethnic minority groups, including Dalit and Madheshi communities in Nepal, face issues accessing citizenship and identity documents and are at risk of statelessness. The Hazara ethnic minority community in Pakistan has previously faced discrimination in receiving passports. The Gypsy (Roma) community may also be at risk of statelessness in Pakistan due to lack of identity documentation and access to services.
| Country | 2019(year start) | 2020(year end) | 2021(year end) | 2022(year end) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | – | – | – | – |
| Bangladesh | 854,704 | 866,457 | 918,841 | 952,309 |
| Bhutan | – | – | – | – |
| India | 17,730 | 18,174 | 20,154 | 21,591 |
| Maldives | – | – | – | – |
| Nepal | – | – | 465 | 452 |
| Pakistan | – | – | 47 | 55 |
| Srilanka | – | – | 35 | 36 |
| TOTALS | 872,434 | 884,631 | 939,542 | 974,443 |
3. Stateless Refugee
The entire reported stateless population in South Asia consists of stateless refugees. The UNHCR has noted that the reported populations in India (21,591) and Nepal (452) are stateless Rohingya refugees, although this is not explicitly stated for the other countries in the region. There has been an extensive focus on Rohingya in Bangladesh by UN bodies, academics, and NGOs, specifically since their mass displacement in 2017. Most of the 950,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh reside within refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, facing limited access to health and social services, education, and living in conditions that have been condemned by residents, international organizations, and NGOs.
The true scale of the Rohingya refugee population in South Asia is estimated to be thousands higher than reported figures. Human Rights Watch has estimated that Rohingya registered with UNHCR in India in 2021 (20,154) represented only half of the total population of 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India.
The Pakistani Foreign Office suggested that as many as 400,000 Rohingya refugees may be in Pakistan (compared to the reported 47). Both Rohingya and Afghan refugees in Pakistan have been excluded from efforts to provide Pakistani citizenship to stateless persons.
Estimate of the stateless Rohingya population versus those reported by Human Rights Watch
Source: ‘India: Rohingya Deported to Myanmar Face Danger’, Human Rights Watch (31 March 2022)
Other groups of refugees affected by statelessness include as many as 73,404 Tibetan refugees and more than 92,000 Sri Lanka refugees in India. There are also 6,365 Bhutanese Lhostshampa refugees in Nepal, many of whom are stateless.
4. Undetermined Nationalities
In 2019, India’s National Register of Citizens in Assam excluded over 1.9 million Assamese, leaving them labeled as foreigners or ‘D voters’ and the validation of their citizenship at the hands of the foreigners’ tribunals. In a recent court proceeding, the Central Government informed the Supreme Court of India that between 2017 to 2022, 14,346 individuals have been deported from India with 32,381 individuals being declared as foreigners. Another 123,829 cases remain pending before the tribunals.
UNHCR has noted that ‘various studies estimate that a large number of individuals lack citizenship certificates in Nepal. While these individuals may not all necessarily be stateless, UNHCR has been working closely with the Government of Nepal and partners to address this situation.’ In 2016, the Forum for Women, Law and Development projected that by 2021, as many as 6.7 million people would be without citizenship. In Pakistan, Bengali-speaking and Bihari communities also hold an uncertain status with limited information available on their citizenship status. The community largely consists of persons repatriated to Pakistan following Bangladeshi independence (and their descendants), some of whom hold passports and documentation, yet continue to face discrimination and exclusion. In the process of digitization of civil registration in Pakistan, Bengali-speaking and Bihari individuals were registered as aliens. While registered as ‘aliens’, they are often denied citizenship under the previous interpretation of Pakistan’s jus soli provision.
5. Other Populations of Note
It is important to note two population groups within South Asia who have had their stateless status ‘solved’ in recent decades yet continue to face discrimination and social exclusion. In Bangladesh, the Urdu-speaking (Bihari) community who have resided in Bangladesh since independence, yet were only recognized as citizens from the early 2000s. However, the Urdu-speaking community, with a population size estimated to be 300,000, continues to face discrimination and marginalization including through the denial of passports, physical isolation in refugee-like camps, and denial of services. The granting of citizenship to the ‘Hill Country’ (or ‘Up-Country’) Tamil population in Sri Lanka in 2003, who had been deprived of citizenship since 1948, has both been held up as a success story of ‘solving’ statelessness and analyzed for the continuing discrimination faced by the population group despite their citizenship status being resolved.
