Stateless and Forgotten: A Visual Report
- Human Rights Research Center
- Jun 19
- 9 min read
Author: Mathilde Guenin, MA
June 18, 2025
View the interactive visual report here on Tableau.
According to international law, a stateless person is “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.” In other words, they do not have a nationality.
What Causes Statelessness?
Discrimination: Exclusion based on ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality or language
Gaps in nationality laws: Laws that fail to cover all situations (e.g. children born to stateless parents)
State Changes: New countries or shifting borders
Lack of Documentation: Inability to prove nationality or identity
Why Nationality Matters?
Nationality gives people access to basic rights and protections. Without it, stateless people are often denied: Education; Healthcare; Employment; Property ownership; Freedom of movement; Legal identity (such as passports or ID cards); Political participation (such as voting or running for office).
Who Are Stateless People?
Côte d’Ivoire | Descendants of Migrants
During French colonial rule, many migrants were brought to the country to work on plantations. After independence in 1960, many remained but were denied nationality (UNHCR, 2024).
Myanmar | Rohingya Muslims
The 1982 Citizenship Law excludes the Rohingya from acquiring nationality by not recognizing them as an ethnic group.
Bangladesh | Rohingya Refugees
Rohingya fled Myanmar, and they are not recognized as citizens by Bangladesh or Myanmar (UNHCR, 2024).
Thailand | Hill Tribes and Ethnic Minorities
Many people belonging to hill tribes and ethnic minorities, born in remote areas, lack birth registration, preventing them from proving their legal identity or national ties (UNHCR, 2024).
Latvia | Ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Minorities
"Stateless" in Latvia refers to "non-citizens," primarily ethnic Russians and other minorities who settled during the Soviet era but did not gain Latvian citizenship after independence (Index Statelessness, 2024).
Kuwait | Bedoon (meaning “without nationality”)
Some groups were excluded from Kuwait’s citizenship registration in the 1950s due to lack of documentation or deliberate exclusion, and are classified as "illegal residents," commonly referred to as Bedoon (ADHRB, 2024).
Syria | Kurdish Population and Palestinians
Many Syrian Kurds became stateless after the 1962 al-Hasakah census, which labeled them "foreigners" due to their ethnicity. Palestinians, descendants of 1948 refugees, were never granted citizenship and remain stateless under special refugee status (Stateless Hub, nd).
Rohingya - Largest Stateless Populations in the World
Who are the Rohingya?
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority, mostly located in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.
They have been targeted by the Myanmar government for decades. The Myanmar government labels the Rohingya as ‘illegal immigrants,’ claiming that they came from Bangladesh during British colonization and are not native to Myanmar. However, many settled in Arakan (present-day Rakhine State) as early as the 8th century and should therefore be considered native. The 1982 Citizenship Law excluded the Rohingya from acquiring nationality by leaving them unrecognized as one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups. Therefore, they became the world’s largest stateless population (New Lines Institute, 2024).
In August 2017, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Rohingya Muslim militant group, attacked police and military posts in Rakhine State. In response, the Myanmar government launched a military campaign against Rohingya communities, which the United Nations has recognized as a genocidal attack (OHCHR, 2022). Many were left with no choice but to flee to neighboring countries for their safety. Today, approximately 500,000 Rohingya are still in Myanmar where they face discrimination by the government, such as restrictions on marriage, employment, education and freedom of movement (UNHCR, 2025).
Myanmar Situation
Myanmar has been under a military dictatorship for decades. In 2011, a period of democratic reform began. In the 2015 elections, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a supermajority in the national parliament. In 2020, the NLD won again, but the military staged a coup in February 2021. People protested in favor of democracy and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. The military responded violently. As a result, many formed resistance groups such as the People’s Defence Force (PDF) to restore democracy (Council on Foreign Relations, 2025). Since the beginning of the civil war, more than 6,000 civilians have died due to the humanitarian crisis (Amnesty, 2025). As of 2025, over 4.2 million people have been displaced by the war, many of them being Rohingya (IDMC, 2025).
Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh
Due to the ongoing civil war and the persecution the Rohyinga face in Myanmar, many fled to neighboring countries. The largest Rohingya exodus was in 2017, right after the Myanmar government reacted violently to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Between 2018 and 2022, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) investigated crimes by the Burmese military, police, and government against Myanmar’s minorities. They discovered documents showing that the military had planned the Rohingya purge before 2017. The Rohingya were viewed as an existential threat, with plans for mass removal (Reuters, 2022). The 2017 ARSA attacks appear to have been used as a pretext to launch the ethnic cleansing operation.
In 2025, approximately 1 million Rohingya refugees are in Bangladesh. Most of them live in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, a complex of 33 camps. This is the largest refugee camp in the world. The shelters are made of polytarp and bamboo, which provide little protection against floods (Development Aid, 2024). Rohingya refugees’ stateless status leaves them with very few opportunities to sustain themselves in Bangladesh. They are not allowed to work and their children cannot attend school, reinforcing the cycle of poverty. With no alternatives, they are forced to remain in these camps.
This year, $934.5M is needed to respond to the crisis and help the 1.5M Rohingya refugees (Rohingya Refugee Response, 2025). The USA is one of the largest providers of aid, having contributed more than $2.4 billion since 2017. Despite funding cuts under the new administration, the U.S. has announced an additional $73 million in aid for the Rohingya (Reuters, 2025).
Conclusion
Ending statelessness is a human rights necessity. Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that 'everyone has the right to a nationality' and that 'no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of their nationality.' A nationality provides access to fundamental rights such as education, employment, and legal protection. Ending statelessness can help communities escape poverty and exclusion.
Glossary
Ethnicity: The quality or fact of belonging to a population group or subgroup made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent (Source: Oxford).
Internally Displaced People (IDPs): “Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border.” (Source: OHCHR).
National Laws: A binding rule or body of rules prescribed by the government of a sovereign state that holds force throughout the regions and territories within the government's dominion (Source: GEMET/RHW).
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA): Operates in Rakhine state in northern Myanmar, where the mostly Muslim Rohingya people have faced persecution. The government of Myanmar describes it as a terrorist organisation. ARSA says its aims are to "defend, salvage and protect" the Rohingya against state repression "in line with the principle of self-defence." (Source: BBC)
Kurds: A member of a mainly Islamic people living in parts of eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran, and eastern Syria (Source: Oxford).
Citizenship Law in Myanmar (1982): The law created a hierarchy with three categories of citizenship and limits automatic acquisition of so-called “full” citizenship to children born to parents from a so-called indigenous or national race. People belonging to other ethnic groups face additional administrative hurdles (Source: UNHCR).
Military dictatorship: Form of government in which the military exerts total control of a country, usually after seizing power by overthrowing the previous rulers in a coup (Source: Britannica).
National League for Democracy (NLD): A Burmese political party founded on 27 September 1988. The party advocates a non-violent movement towards multi-party democracy in Burma, which had been under military rule from 1962 to 2011. Furthermore, the party supports human rights (including broad-based freedom of speech), the rule of law, and national reconciliation (Source: CALD).
Al-Hasakah census in Syria: In 1962, a one-day census in Al-Hasakah province, caused large-scale statelessness, mainly among Kurds. While some gained citizenship through a Decree passed in 2011, it is estimated that over 150,000 people remain without citizenship. (Source: Stateless Hub)
Soviet Era: The period in Russian history from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, characterized by a single-party state governed by communist principles (Source: fiveable library)
Coup d'état: the sudden, violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group (Source: Britannica).
British colonialism: Refers to the establishment, expansion, and maintenance of British territories and influence across various parts of the world from the late 16th century to the mid-20th century. (Source: fiveable library)
People’s Defence Force (PDF): A citizen militia formed to combat the military dictatorship which came to power in Myanmar after the 2021 coup d'etat and overthrew the previously democratic-leaning government, the NLD (Source: National League for Democracy).
Cox's Bazar: A city, fishing port, tourism centre, and district headquarters in southeastern Bangladesh. It is famous mostly for its long natural sandy beach, and it is infamous for the largest refugee camp in the world (Source: Bangladesh Tourism board).
Nationality: The fact or status of being a member or citizen of a particular nation. (Source: Britannica)
Ethnic Minority: A group within a community which has different national or cultural traditions from the main population. (Source: Oxford)
Colonization: The act or process of sending people to live in and govern another country. (source: Cambridge Dictionary)
Military Campaign: Refers to a strategic operation involving the use of armed forces to achieve specific objectives, such as gaining control over territories or defeating an enemy. It encompasses planning, coordination, and execution of military actions in a particular geographic area. (source: Science Direct)
Humanitarian crisis: Defined as an event or series of events that represents a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a community or other large group of people, usually over a wide area. (source: Concern Worldwide)
Exodus: The movement of a lot of people from a place at the same time (Source: Oxford)
Refugee: A person who has fled their own country because they are at risk of serious human rights violations and persecution there. (Source: Amnesty International)
Polytarp: Polyethylene tarpaulin sheets, commonly known as poly tarps, are versatile, durable, and affordable materials used for a variety of purposes. They are made of polyethylene, a plastic material that is water-resistant and durable. Poly tarps come in various sizes, colors, and thicknesses to suit different needs. (source: Gonevis)
Fundamental rights: The minimum standards to ensure everyone is treated with dignity. (source: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights)
The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA): is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to furthering criminal justice efforts through investigations, in order to prevent the loss and destruction of vital evidence for the purpose of supporting prosecutorial efforts to end impunity, whether at the domestic or international level. (source: CIJA)
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