South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 who cannot afford effective legal representation. Taken together with the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, this arbitrariness and discrimination, mostly directed at Muslim groups, is being institutionalised under the current Hindu-majoritarian dispensation, with citizenship laws effectively being used for political ends, significantly amplifying the mass production of statelessness. Nepal While Tibetan and Bhutanese refugees account for almost all of Nepal’s refugee population (64 per cent and 31 per cent respectively), more than 500 refugees and asylum-seekers from other countries have been living in Nepal since the early 1990s. Nepal has also been hosting a small community of Rohingya refugees who have made their way into Nepal since 2012. Both Tibetan and Bhutanese refugees in Nepal had been subject to religious persecution and human rights violations prior to their exodus from their home countries. Currently, there are over 13,000 Tibetan refugees, spread in 14 different settlements across Nepal. At present, the Nepal government recognises only those Tibetans who crossed the border before 1989 as refugees; anyone coming in after that year is considered an illegal immigrant. After 1994, Nepal stopped issuing refugee cards (RCs) to children who turned 16 even if they were born to parents holding RCs, leaving many stateless. Fewer than 25 per cent of the Tibetans in refugee settlements hold RCs, which provide the holder with the right to reside and travel in Nepal. Without RCs, refugees live in constant fear of deportation and are subject to exploitation by authorities. Of the over 108,000 Bhutanese refugees initially housed in seven camps in Nepal, only an estimated 6,500 remain in Nepal. The rest have now left for third-country resettlement to eight countries around the world. Many of the refugees remaining in Nepal are those who were unable to apply for third-country resettlement owing to lack of valid RCs. For others, the reasons for staying back are varied. Many of the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal await one of three solutions: repatriation to Bhutan, resumption of the third-country resettlement programme or assimilation in Nepal as Nepali citizens. xl