South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019
for economic advancement, and they have been made to rely on
handouts from government and international agencies that are in
almost all cases woefully inadequate.
Rising majoritarianism in many countries have also fuelled the
negative sentiments against refugees and asylum-seekers, particularly
if they belong to a religion that has been demonised domestically or
if they belong to sects that are viewed by the majority as deviant in
one way or another. These have often resulted in violence against
minority religious groups. Unfortunately, minority sects also face
discrimination and violence from fellow adherents of the same
faith but of a different sect even as the latter face persecution from
extremists belonging to the majority religions.
Conditions have also been created in all South Asian countries
for large populations of these groups to be rendered stateless
in countries they have lived in all their lives. While geopolitics
also plays a part in the systematic denial of any kind of official
recognition to some of these groups, in most cases, it is largely this
fear and even hatred of religious and other minorities that serve as
drivers of this inhumane policies.
As non-citizens in a region where all countries barring one has
signed the Refugee Convention, and none of the South Asian states
have signed up to the Conventions on Stateless People, refugees and
asylum-seekers along with the stateless form the most vulnerable
population group as evidenced in this report through incidents of
violence and denial of even the most basic services. It is the onus
of all South Asian governments therefore to bring positive change
to the lives of these groups of people, and it is for this reason that
the recommendations are aimed towards them.
All the governments in South Asia are urged to:
• Sign the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
and its 1967 Protocol27 in order to provide protection and
services to all the refugees in the region.
• Concurrently, introduce domestic legislation to cover
refugees and asylum-seekers to grant them the opportunity
lead a dignified life.
27 Afghanistan is the only South Asian country to have signed both.
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