tens of thousands of applicants and their dependents were naturalised.139 These policies played an important part in preventing and reducing statelessness at that time and for successive generations. A more recent example is an initiative launched this summer by the Thai Senate: DNA testing will be offered to around 1,000 stateless persons, allowing them to access Thai citizenship by confirming their blood ties to a person who already holds Thai nationality.140 Beyond the ASEAN region, numerous additional examples of dedicated citizenship campaigns can be identified. In Nepal, nearly 2.6 million citizenship certificates were issued as part of a mammoth nationwide programme in 2007, dramatically reducing the incidence of statelessness in the country.141 In Sri Lanka, the “Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act” was passed in 2003. This conferred nationality to a population of around 300,000 “Hill Tamils” who were left stateless under the nationality law adopted at the time of independence.142 Elsewhere, Bangladesh, Iraq, Mauritania, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and Kyrgyzstan are among the growing list of states that have taken steps specifically to reduce statelessness.143 Therefore, there are now many sources of inspiration for the development of citizenship campaigns if states find that a situation of statelessness within their borders demands a dedicated reduction exercise. 5.3 Facilitated naturalisation Individual cases of statelessness can also be resolved over time through regular naturalisation procedures. In view of the importance of ensuring that everyone enjoys a nationality, international law now calls for the naturalisation of stateless persons to be facilitated.144 In other words, it should be easier stateless persons to qualify for naturalisation and process an application than is perhaps the case for other non-nationals. Just one country in the ASEAN region makes explicit reference to stateless persons in its regular provisions for naturalisation: Lao PDR. The required period of residence that must be met prior to applying for naturalisation is reduced if the applicant is stateless.145 Facilitated naturalisation for stateless persons in Viet Nam One objective of Viet Nam’s 2008 nationality law was to create conditions for “stateless persons permanently residing in Viet Nam to acquire Vietnamese nationality”.146 The law does not establish lasting procedures for the facilitated naturalisation of stateless persons. However, it does 139 Teresita Ang See, “Influx of new Chinese immigrants to the Philippines: problems and challenges”, paper presented at the 5th Conference of the International Society of Chinese Overseas, Copenhagen, 2004; E. Palanca, “Chinese education in the Philippines and Malaysia: a comparative study” in Journal of Malaysian Chinese Studies, Volume 7, 2004. 140 DNA test on 984 stateless persons launched, The Nation [Thailand], 7 July 2010. 141 Statelessness: Major progress in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, UNHCR Briefing Note, 25 September 1007; N. Gurung and E. Paulsen, “Nepal moves mountains” in Refugees Magazine, No. 147, 2007; P. White, “Reducing de facto statelessness in Nepal” in Forced Migration Review, Issue 32, 2009; UNHCR, UNHCR progress report on statelessness 2009, EC/60/SC/CRP.10, 29 May 2009. 142 Sri Lanka makes citizens out of stateless tea pickers, UNHCR News Story, 7 October 2004; S. Perera, “Sri Lankan success story” in Refugees Magazine, No. 147, 2007; M. Manly and S. Persaud, “UNHCR and responses to statelessness” in Forced Migration Review, Issue 32, 2009; UNHCR, UNHCR progress report on statelessness 2009, EC/60/SC/CRP.10, 29 May 2009. 143 Helping Crimean Tatars feel at home again, UNHCR News Story, 8 June 2005;UNHCR welcomes UAE decision on stateless people, UNHCR Briefing Note, 23 September 2008; B. Manby, Struggles for citizenship in Africa, chapter 4 on “Mass denationalisation and expulsion”, Zed Books, London, 2009; Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Challenges of forced displacement within Iraq, 29 December 2008; M. Manly and S. Persaud, “UNHCR and responses to statelessness” in Forced Migration Review, Issue 32, 2009; K. Hussain, “The end of Bihari statelessness” in Forced Migration Review, Issue 32, 2009; UNHCR, UNHCR progress report on statelessness 2009, EC/60/SC/CRP.10, 29 May 2009; Kyrgyzstan agrees on action plan to cut and prevent statelessness, UNHCR News Story, 22 September 2009. 144 See, for instance, article 32 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 145 Note that this is only the case for applicants who are also “of Lao race”. Thus, the regular qualifying period of residence is 10 years; for persons of Lao race, this is reduced to 5 years; and if the applicant, in addition to being of Lao race, holds no other nationality, then the residence period is reduced again to 3 years. See articles 14 and 14 of the Law on Lao Nationality, No. 06/90/PSA, 1990, as amended. Note that rendering access to facilitated naturalisation for stateless persons dependent on being of a particular race may raise questions with regard to the international principle of non-discrimination. Persons belonging to minorities such as other indigenous groups, as well as ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese minorities, will be excluded from the important benefits of this provision. 146 Article 8 of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality, Order No. 22/2008/L-CTN, 2008. 21