1. Reported stateless persons
In 2022, Sri Lanka reported 36 stateless persons to UNHCR, an increase of one person since reported numbers in 2021. This figure comprises entirely of stateless refugees, with UNHCR noting that they have information regarding the in situ stateless population but lack any reliable data.
2. Stateless Refugee
Sri Lanka reported 36 stateless refugees to UNHCR in 2022. Additionally, as noted in the India chapter, as many as 100,000 Sri Lankan refugees are potentially stateless.
| Country | 2019 (year start) | 2020 (year end) | 2021 (year end) | 2022 (year end) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sri Lanka | – | – | 35 | 36 |
Source: UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement from 2019-2022.
3. Other Populations of Note
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. This population consists of persons of Tamil ethnicity brought to Sri Lanka from India during colonial periods, largely to work on tea plantations in the Sri Lankan Hill Country, and are distinguished from ‘Sri Lankan’ Tamil populations who historically resided in the country’s north and east. In 2003, in a combined project between the Sri Lankan Government, UNHCR, and the Ceylon Workers’ Congress, citizenship was provided to an estimated 200,000 members of this community.
