South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 National Law and Citizenship Bangladesh has largely followed the jus sanguinis principle when determining citizenship, meaning that citizenship is contingent on descent. Based on this, the country’s citizenship law has rendered generations of Rohingya living in Bangladesh effectively stateless. Nationality or citizenship in Bangladesh is mainly regulated by the Citizenship Act of 1951, and the Rules of 1952, the 1972 Citizenship Order and Rules of 1978; Naturalization Act of 1926 and the Rules of 1961. These laws were regularised when Bangladesh was still ruled by Pakistan. Following independence, the Citizenship (Temporary Provisions) Order of 15 December 1972 was passed, granting anyone living in the country at the time of independence ipso facto citizenship of Bangladesh. The government is currently in the process of enacting a new citizenship law which would repeal the 1951 Act and 1972 Order. The draft law was approved by the Cabinet in February 2016,21 and though the government has not yet made the law public, jurists and rights activists are in agreement that the new law would result in increased statelessness, among other negative consequences.22 Bangladesh has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, and there is no specific domestic law or national policy governing the protection of refugees in Bangladesh. In most of the cases, refugees are considered foreigners and governed by the provisions of the Foreigners Act of 1946. Some other similar legislation may also be applicable in this regard, such as the Registration of Foreigners Act 1939, the Passport Act 1920, the Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary Provision) Order 1972, the Extradition Act 1974 and the Naturalisation Act 1926.23 In the absence of any legal or specialised statutory framework for the protection of refugees, Bangladesh relies on these acts to govern the entry, stay and exit of foreigners in Bangladesh. Section 21 Ridwanul Hoque, Report on Citizenship Law: Bangladesh, (Italy: European University Institute, 2016). 22 ‘New citizenship bill creates second-class citizens,’ Dhaka Tribune, February 14, 2017, accessed November 1, 2019, https://www.dhakatribune.com/ bangladesh/law-rights/2017/02/05/new-citizenship-bill-creates-second-classcitizens/. 23 Ashraful Azad, ‘Foreigners Act and the freedom of movement of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh’, Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity, 5, no. 2, (2017): 189. 26