Stateless Minorities And Their Search For Citizenship

Stateless Minorities And Their Search For Citizenship.

An estimated 10 million people worldwide are stateless, including three million officially, a status that deprives them of an identity, rights, and often jobs, the United Nations refugee agency said. Muslim Rohingyas in Buddhist-majority Myanmar form the world’s most significant stateless minority, with some 600,000 having fled violence and repression since late August and taken refuge in Bangladesh, it said. In a report, ”This is Our Home“ – Stateless Minorities and their Search for Citizenship”, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on governments to end the discriminatory practice by 2024. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said 3.2 million people in 75 countries were known to be stateless, having been registered or counted by governments. But the estimated total is 10 million, including large populations in countries including Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said. Governments should give nationality to people born on their territory if they would otherwise be stateless, and facilitate naturalisation for longtime stateless residents, UNHCR says. Other stateless groups — many of whom have lived for generations in their homelands — include many Syrian Kurds, the Karana of Madagascar, Roma in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Pemba of Kenya, the report said. Credit: Reuters.

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http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/stateless-minorities/