Introduction seen in Table 1, neither country hosts any refugees within its border even though both countries have contributed to the global refugee population in some small measure. As much is evident in the case of Bhutan, which is detailed in the country chapter on Nepal that also deals with Bhutanese refugees. Depending on context, the country chapters deal either with refugee populations that have left the country or are in the country, or with conditions that have left their minority populations in a state of (virtual) statelessness. Further, while the primary focus of the publication is on religious minorities, the contributions adopt an intersectional approach to deal with other minorities—national, ethnic and linguistic—and attempt to examine the particular conditions facing those most marginalised. The selection of the 2019 theme was done through a consultative process involving the South Asia Collective (SAC). After initial discussions held remotely, members of the SAC came together in Kathmandu for the Regional Network Meeting in February 2019. Besides the launch of the South Asia State of Minorities Report 2018, the meet also provided an opportunity for SAC members to discuss the future plan of action as well as agree on a common theme that would have resonance in all the countries in the region. Accordingly, ‘migrants, refugees and the stateless’ was chosen as the subject for the 2019 report. It was agreed that the country chapters would be drafted based primarily on secondary sources. Where required, either due to lack of information or to capture new developments, primary research consisting mainly of interviews was to be conducted to provide a more updated perspective on the situation. Some of the writing teams faced difficulties due to the absence of recent data, most tellingly in the case of Afghanistan, or lack of access to key groups, as in Bangladesh with regard to the Rohingya. Although intended to highlight the scale and kinds of issues faced by migrants, refugees and the stateless, given the paucity of available information, the country chapters were not able to deal with all the groups in equal measure and do justice to them. Every attempt, however, has been made at the very least to either identify all the groups that fall in these categories or include them in the discussions otherwise. xxxiii