Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Myanmar
RELEVANT POPULATION DATA
Official Language:
Estimated Population:
Estimated total number of refugees from Myanmar living abroad:
IDPs in Kachin and Shan State (UNOCHA 2019):
Stateless population in Myanmar outside Rakhine/Rohingya areas:
Burmese
50.3 million 1
1.2 million 2
106,290 3
Unmapped
ROHINGYA POPULATION DATA
Stateless Rohingya not displaced in Myanmar (UNHCR 2019):
IDPs in Rakhine State - mostly Rohingya and Kaman Muslims (UNOCHA 2019):
Refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh – mostly Rohingya (UNHCR 2019):
Rohingya arrivals in Bangladesh since August 2017 (UNHCR 2019):
Total estimated number of Rohingya outside Myanmar:
495,939 4
127,987 5
909,774 6
740,930 7
1.8 million 8
Stateless persons in Myanmar have been subject to human rights violations, persecution and mass
expulsions. In the military operations against stateless Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2017, at least 10,000
Rohingya were killed and at least 40% of Rohingya villages in Northern Rakhine State were destroyed and
hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were driven into Bangladesh. Running in parallel with the operations
were the government’s attempts to enforce their Nationality Verification and registration procedures. The
UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFM) report concluded that the violations
“constituted the gravest crimes under international law” and recommended the senior Generals in the
Myanmar military be investigated and prosecuted for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.
Resources: OHCHR, The Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, 2018 (IIFFM
report 2018) A/HRC/39/64
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=23575&LangID=E
Myanmar census of 2014. In many of the areas affected by conflict in Myanmar, people did not take part in the census. Other sources
estimate the population 48-60 million (Myanmar Information Management Unit).
2
UNHCR 2017 data http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/asylum_seekers This figure includes Rohingya but only those mapped by UNHCR
3
UNOCHA Jan 2019 based on CCCM report Dec 2018
https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/MMR_Kachin_Shan_Access_Tracking_Jan2019.pdf
4
UNHCR Global Focus: Myanmar http://reporting.unhcr.org/node/2541#_ga=2.261815757.1793627529.1551014125722931992.1495718844 The number of stateless in Myanmar in 2016 prior to recent displacements was estimated at 1,090,000. See
OHCHR, Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights, 32nd session, 2016, A/HRC/32/18 (OHCHR 2016)
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session32/Documents/A_HRC_32_18_AEV.docx)
5
UNOCHA Jan 2019 based on UNHCR stats
https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Rakhine_Snapshot_IDPS_A4_Jan19.pdf
6
UNHCR data on responses in Bangladesh 2019 https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/myanmar_refugees
7
Ibid
8
Al Jazeera map based on figures available in October 2017 from IOM, UNHCR and other aid agencies
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2017/09/rohingya-crisis-explained-maps-170910140906580.html
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