Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus Sanguinis and Jus Soli Provisions

The citizenship legislation of Bangladesh provides for both jus soli and jus sanguinis citizenship, stipulated by The Citizenship Act (1951). Under the written law of Bangladesh, persons born in the territory will gain citizenship by birth unless their father is a diplomat or an enemy alien. However, in practice, citizenship by birth appears to be provided only when a child is born in Bangladesh to two Bangladeshi citizen parents. The jus sanguinis provision of the Bangladeshi citizenship law provides that a child born either within or outside of Bangladesh to a Bangladeshi citizen automatically acquires citizenship by descent. While most gender discriminatory provisions that barred women from transferring their nationality to their children were removed by amendments in 2009, however, a few still remain in the laws of Bangladesh as women are unable to confer nationality onto their foreign spouses. If the parent of the child is themselves a citizen by descent and the child is born abroad, the birth must be registered for citizenship to be obtained. There is no definition of a stateless person nor is there explicit mention of statelessness in Bangladesh’s citizenship legislation.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

The Citizenship Act stipulates that any person can apply for naturalization in Bangladesh, the details of which are stipulated by the Naturalization Act (1926). To be eligible for naturalization, the applicant must not be a minor, must reside in Bangladesh for at least twelve consecutive months as well as for at least four of the seven years before application, and have an adequate knowledge of Bengali, among other requirements. There is no simplified or expedited procedure available for stateless persons or refugees. A foreign citizen must renounce prior citizenship upon application.

However, this provision was seen to be discriminatory in the case of Rohingyas. The Government of Bangladesh since 2014 has banned marriages between Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi citizens in the fear of Rohingyas using marriage to obtain Bangladeshi citizenship.

Citizenship may be acquired through marriage via the naturalization process; however, the laws stipulating this include gender discriminatory provisions denying women the right to pass nationality to their spouses. However, this provision was seen to be discriminatory in the case of Rohingyas. The Government of Bangladesh since 2014 has banned marriages between Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi citizens in the fear of Rohingyas using marriage to obtain Bangladeshi citizenship. In a 2018 Writ Petition filed, the High Court upheld the marriage ban in the case of a Bangladeshi citizen marrying a Rohingya woman. Besides Rohingyas, there is no marriage ban against any other community in Bangladesh.

c. Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is not recognized in Bangladesh. A Bangladeshi citizen by birth automatically loses their Bangladeshi citizenship upon acquisition of citizenship of another country. However, as a result of a 1978 amendment to the 1972 Citizenship Order, there are some discriminatory provisions relating to reacquisition of citizenship based on the country of former citizens’ citizenship acquisition. Citizens of only Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States who are of Bangladeshi origin are able to apply for reacquisition of Bangladeshi citizenship.

2. Treaty Ratification Status

While Bangladesh has not yet ratified the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, or the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, it has ratified ICCPR, ICESCR, ICERD, CRC, and CEDAW with no relevant reservations.

In 2016, the CEDAW Committee highlighted that while the 2009 amendments to The Citizenship Act removed some gender discriminatory provisions, they did not retroactively apply for children before its entry into force. In regard to the lack of access to justice for women in Bangladesh, the Committee recommended that the country ensure that all women and girls, including those who are affected by statelessness, “have effective access to justice by raising their awareness of their human rights and the remedies available to claim them”.

The Committee also expressed concerns over the fact that only 3% of children born in Bangladesh are registered within 45 days of their birth and that only 88% of school-aged children were registered in 2016. Further, women and children make up a disproportionate percentage of the unregistered Rohingya population (60%). It was recommended that Bangladesh ensure that the 2009 amendments apply retroactively and ensure that all children’s births are registered immediately. The CRC Committee also recommended that the country “provide birth registration and access to basic rights, such as to health and education, for all undocumented.

However, Bangladesh has failed in its commitment to provide formal education to all children, as nearly half a million Rohingya refugee children are banned from access to formal education.

Rohingya children and their families”. As a party to CRC as well as ICCPR, Bangladesh is obligated to ensure that all births are registered immediately after birth.

In Bangladesh’s recent Universal Periodic Review, it was stated that Bangladesh has been working to ensure education for Rohingya children with the support of international organizations, including UNICEF. However, Bangladesh has failed in its commitment to provide formal education to all children, as nearly half a million Rohingya refugee children are banned from access to formal education. Further, it was stated that Bangladesh remains committed to the Rohingya population’s “right to safe, dignified and voluntary return to their homes in Myanmar”. While Bangladesh signed a repatriation deal with Myanmar and formed a Joint Working Group on the issue in 2021, Myanmar has yet to follow through in ensuring Rohingya’s right to safe, dignified, and voluntary return to Myanmar.

Status of Accession of International Human Rights Treaties in South Asia

Country	Stateless 1	Stateless 2	Refugee	ICCPR	ICESCR	ICERD	CRC	CEDAW
Bangladesh

Signifies that the country is a party to the convention

Stateless 1 – 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

Signifies that the country is not a party to the convention

Stateless 2 – 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

Population

1. Reported Stateless Persons

Bangladesh has the largest population of stateless persons both in South Asia and in the Asia Pacific, reporting 952,309 persons to UNHCR in 2022. The reported population has steadily increased by about 10,000-50,000 persons each year.

2. Stateless Refugee

The entire reported stateless population in Bangladesh, of more than 950,000 persons, are stateless refugees. There has been an extensive focus on Rohingyas in Bangladesh by UN bodies, academics, and NGOs, specifically since the mass displacement which occurred 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.

In June 2020, there were not enough isolation facilities in the overcrowded Cox’s Bazaar to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Around the same time, during COVID-19 lockdowns, Rohingya refugees headed for Bangladesh on a wooden boat were found stuck at sea by Malaysia. The Bangladeshi government announced that they would rescue those on the boat and quarantine them on the remote island of Bhashan Char in the Bay of Bengal, which has been described by experts as “not suitable for long-term human habitation”. As more numbers of Rohingya were quarantined.

On Bhashan Char, the island has evolved into a permanent alternative settlement for the Rohingya population in Bangladesh, despite major concerns expressed by both the Rohingyas and the international community. As of February 2022, an estimated 19,000 people had been relocated. In 2023, the population of Bhashan Char was estimated at 30,000 and counting.

3. Other Populations of Note

A population of note in Bangladesh is the Urdu-speaking (Bihari) community, who have resided in Bangladesh since independence. Historically, the Urdu-speaking community were stateless, with their status as Bangladeshi citizens denied due to perceived connections to Pakistan. Since the early 2000s, their citizenship status has been recognized, and community members have progressively been granted citizenship. 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. In this sense, while the formal citizenship status of this population has been resolved, Urdu-speaking populations continue to be impacted by the legacies of statelessness.

Reported stateless persons to the UNHCR

Country	2019 (year start)	2020 (year end)	2021 (year end)	2022 (year end)
Bangladesh	854,704	866,457	918,841	952,309

Source: UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement from 2019-2022.

Causes of Statelessness

1. Discriminatory Nationality Laws

As outlined in the Myanmar chapter, the statelessness of the Rohingya community is largely caused by ethnic discrimination embedded in the citizenship laws of Myanmar. Urdu-speaking ‘Bihari’ communities were excluded from accession to Bangladeshi citizenship until court intervention in 2008 due to discriminatory interpretations of the citizenship law. Conceptions of the Urdu-Speaking community as owing allegiance to or ‘belonging’ to Pakistan led to their denial of rights under amendments to the Bangladeshi citizenship laws that were introduced in 1978.

While 2009 amendments to The Citizenship Act removed the gender discriminatory provisions which denied women the equal right to pass citizenship to their children, the Act still contains provisions which deny women the equal right to confer citizenship to a foreign spouse. The Act contains a provision allowing foreign women married to a Bangladeshi man to apply for naturalized citizenship through a simplified process, yet there is no such provision allowing the same for foreign men married to Bangladeshi women. In particular, due to the government banning marriages between Rohingyas and citizens, their marriages as a result are unregistered, potentially leaving their children open to statelessness.

2. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness

On the face of the law, the jus soli provision of Bangladeshi citizenship law would provide foundling children and children born to stateless parents access to citizenship. However, due to lack of implementation of Bangladesh’s jus soli provisions, citizenship is predominantly only gained via descent as children born in Bangladesh are typically only granted citizenship if they have at least one Bangladeshi citizen parent.

3. Administrative Barriers

Administrative and policy practices have led to the citizenship laws of Bangladesh shifting in application from jus soli to jus sanguinis in their application. While the majority of stateless persons in Bangladesh are Rohingyas whose stateless status was gained before their arrival in Bangladesh, it is this ‘paradigmatic policy shift’ that has compounded intergenerational statelessness among their children born in the country. In 2020, it was estimated that more than 75,000 Rohingya children had been born in the Cox’s Bazaar Refugee camp since 2017. In April 2022, it was reported that an official count found that on average 95 children were born per day to Rohingya parents in refugee camps, accounting for this, an additional 70,000 stateless children may have been born in Bangladesh in the past two years.

Bangladesh’s birth registration rate was reported as 56% as of 2019, increasing to just 58% in 2022. Innovations to the CRVS model in 2021 contributed to increasing the birth registration rate to 83% in the first quarter of 2023. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has noted that women and children in the Rohingya community experience lower rates of birth registration, placing them at risk of statelessness. Local private entrepreneurs involved in the data entry process have been reported to charge informal fees for facilitating the data entry of an application for registration.

Bangladesh

Overview

Law