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World's 3 million stateless deserve nationality - UNHCR


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World's 3 million stateless deserve nationality - UNHCR

By Stephanie Nebehay

 

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Rohingya refugees continue their way after crossing from Myanmar into Palong Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - At least three million people worldwide are stateless, most of them minorities, a status that deprives them of an identity, rights, and often jobs, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.

 

Muslim Rohingyas in Buddhist-majority Myanmar form the world's biggest 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.

 

"If you live in this world without a nationality, you are without an identity, you are without documentation, without the rights and entitlements that we take for granted ... having a job, having education, knowing that your child belongs somewhere," Carol Batchelor, director of UNHCR's division of international protection, told a news briefing.

 

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.

 

"We can concretely say there are over 3 million identified stateless persons, but that would certainly not be the scope in totality," Batchelor said.

 

"We need to ensure that there is not a deliberate, arbitrary exclusion or deprivation of nationality."

 

Asked whether Rohingya fell into the category of those deliberately excluded and deprived of nationality, Batchelor said: "We can only look at the result ... Myanmar has a nationality law. It outlines categories of persons that are considered to be citizens of Myanmar. The Rohingya are not on that list."

 

Some 30,000 stateless people in Thailand have acquired nationality since 2012 and the Makonde, a community of 4,000, became Kenya's 43rd officially recognised tribe last year, the report said.

 

"We are seeing reductions in Thailand, in central Asia, in Russia, in Western Africa. But the numbers are not nearly as substantial as they would need to be for us to end statelessness by 2024," said Melanie Khanna, head of UNHCR's statelessness section.

 

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Catherine Evans)

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-03
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Whether you like a group of people or not, no one should be deprived of citizenship to a country.   It is the most basic of rights.  

 

When I was first living in Thailand, citizenship was tied to the father being a Thai national, which meant many children born illegitimately (especially to foreigners) were stateless.   Many could not attend school.   Their plight was not a good one and they had never set foot out of Thailand.   The gov't eventually changed the rules on this issue, but it was too late for many of the children born to mixed relationships that were a remnant of the Vietnam war.  

 

Many of the hilltribe people are still stateless

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At least with regard to the Karana in Madagascar, I do not see the implicitly mentioned suppression.

... These approximately 25.000 Muslim Karana from Indian descent, also called Gujarati, are said to control 50-60% of the economy of Madagascar, a country with roughly 25 million inhabitants.

 

So, if a group of just 0.1% of the total population controls half of their economy - they are doing quite well, I would say !!!

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I cannot speak to all the four groups mentioned but the Kurds don't seem to want to be Syrian or Iraqi, the Bengalis who live in Rakine State don't seem to want to be Burmese? Both want their own country? 

 

Indians in Madagascar seem to all have been born there. Are they denied Madagascar passports? Wikipedia says only 850 or so are non-resident.

 

Many people have questions, but few have answers.

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Totally dis agree with VocalNeal: First of all no Bengali lives in Rakhine state, secondly here the issue with Rohingas are Burmese

However the main point is the Ethnic Cleansing and genocide thats taking place as we speak, so many villsages after villages are being burnt down, young girls, children, women are mercilessly raped by the Burmese Army is truly unspeakable. And here the UN or its body is silent. So is their Nobel Lorette.

 

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