Gambia — Africa's smallest continental nation, and the country that brought the Rohingya case to the International Court of Justice
Gambia has over two million inhabitants and is Africa's smallest continental nation. This country itself sued Myanmar at the International Court of…
Bangladesh — A country that allows dual citizenship few know about, and home to the world's largest refugee camp
Unlike India and Nepal, Bangladesh PERMITS dual citizenship in certain cases — something very few people know. Bang…
Palestine — Where the same ethnic origin leads to six, seven different legal statuses
People of Palestinian origin do not have a common legal status. Depending on where they live, the same lineage can lead to different…
Sudan — When a country splits, hundreds of thousands lost citizenship without going anywhere
In 2011, South Sudan separated. Sudan's law amended right after made those considered "already having South Sudanese citizenship" automati…
Myanmar — Country with three CITIZENSHIP CLASSES under law, and warning that Vietnamese should read first
Myanmar's 1982 citizenship law divides citizens into three classes with different rights, based on a list of ethnic groups…
Zimbabwe — Where hundreds of thousands lost citizenship because their ancestors were born abroad, and a constitution that gave it back
In the early 2000s, Zimbabwe forced people holding another country's citizenship to renounce it — and applied it to hundreds of thousands of people w…
Syria — Where a 1962 census created stateless people for half a century
In 1962, a special census in Hasakah province stripped hundreds of thousands of Kurds of citizenship. This is an example…
Côte d'Ivoire — Where a concept of "who is native" led to civil war
In the 1990s, a doctrine of "nativeness" was introduced into Côte d'Ivoire politics, excluding millions of people of immigrant descent…
Comoros — Where the citizenship-selling industry and statelessness meet, and break
Comoros once sold citizenship in batches to Gulf countries to grant to stateless people living there. This was the…
Madagascar — Where citizenship law revised in 2017 gave a way out for a four-generation community
Until 2017, a Madagascan mother could not pass citizenship to her children. The heaviest consequences fell on a community that had been here…
Haiti — The only country that had to PAY to be recognized as a nation
In 1804 Haiti became the first Black republic in the world. In 1825, France sent warships and set a price for…
Kenya — A country trying to turn refugee camps into towns, and issuing documents to people living there
Kenya has two of the world's oldest refugee camps, where many people were born and grew up without ever having identification…
Malawi — Where an entire generation worked in mines in another country, and the price paid by generations after
For decades, Malawian workers went to work in mines and farms in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Their descendants later faced discrimination in the very country of their birth…
Mauritania — The last country in the world to abolish slavery, and people pushed across borders without documents
Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981 — the latest in the world — and criminalized it in 2007. During that same period, dozens of…