South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 A group that had long remained stateless in India but have recently had nationality granted are the inhabitants of the IndiaBangladesh enclaves. The enclaves, a result of the Partition of India in 1947, have hosted thousands of people who were neither nationals of India nor Bangladesh due to convoluted boundary demarcation. It was only in 1974, after Bangladesh’s independence, that an agreement was signed by the two countries on boundary demarcation. It would take another 36 years for a protocol to the agreement to be agreed upon by the two parties, in 2011. In 2015, the enclave swap was ratified by the Indian Parliament. This was followed by a survey of families, resulting in 15,852 inhabitants opting for India, who were all granted citizenship. The rest opted to stay in Bangladesh.17 The Consequences of Migration The UN Global Compact on Refugees, though not a legally binding document, represents the political will and ambition of the international community for strengthened cooperation and solidarity with refugees and affected host countries.18 It acts as a helpful yardstick for assessing how refugees are treated and services provided. The Global Compact lays out the range of duties of host states, namely, i) reception and admission arrangements, including safety and security, and notably, registration and documentation; ii) meeting the needs of the refugees, including education, jobs and livelihoods, health, accommodation, and food security, with priority to children, girls and women; and finally; and iii) providing solutions, including local integration, resettlement or voluntary repatriation. India has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, and its 1967 Protocol. Thus, adherence to the Global Compact is still a work in progress. Even without referencing the Global Compact, it is clear that the Documents,’ Rising Kashmir, May 5, 2019, http://www.risingkashmir.com/ news/pakistani-wives-of-ex-kashmiri-militants-appeal-goi-for-traveldocuments--349436.html. 17 Ibid. 18 Other instruments include the 1951 Refugee Convention. See: ‘The 1951 Refugee Convention,’ About Us, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees—India, accessed 11 February 2020, https://www.unhcr.org/1951-refugeeconvention.html. 44

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