A/73/205 were deported, left voluntarily or were forced to leave for makeshift refugee camps in Haiti. 34. The pattern is seen again in Asia and the Pacific: the stateless Rohingya in Myanmar, of whom there were close to 1 million in 2016, are by far the largest concentration of stateless individuals in this vast region, although they are closely followed by Palestinians in the Middle East (notwithstanding the uncertainty as to the status of many), followed by some 500,000 individuals in Thailand in 2017, most of whom come from various ethnic minorities, including many who may originate from Myanmar and indigenous populations. Neither is Europe exempt from the same phenomenon. According to UNHCR statistics for 2017, almost all the stateless persons in Europe belong to two minority groups, Russians an d Roma. The Russian minority is found in Estonia and Latvia, where its members number more than 310,000, while the Roma are more dispersed throughout Europe but may not be able to demonstrate their citizenship in countries with more demanding formalities. 11 35. There are, of course, many more individuals or groups affected by statelessness, not all of them belonging to minorities. It is, however, undeniable and striking that only a handful of minorities represent a staggeringly high proportion of the world ’s stateless population and is indicative of a common and persistent systemic problem. Indeed, this type of pattern may arise in new contexts. In India, for example, a proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955 would facilitate eligibility for citizenship for most religious groups, but exclude the Muslim minority. Fears have been expressed that that situation would lead to millions of Muslims in India being unable to formalize their citizen status, thus leaving them stateless. 12 C. Main causes of statelessness 36. Statelessness does not equally affect populations around the world: it is, by and large, a minority issue, given that more than three quarters of the world ’s stateless populations are persons belonging to minorities. Notwithstanding some initiatives and successes connected to the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness, 13 this number does not appear to have changed dramatically as at 2018. 37. A preliminary conclusion from the expert consultation and other contributions to the present report is that the large-scale occurrence of statelessness is usually connected to the following main situations: (a) Changes in legislation resulting in denial or deprivation of previously held citizenship. This is the most common cause of statelessness for millions of minorities, including the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Kurds in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, and most other cases of large-scale statelessness affecting specific minority groups; (b) State succession, secession or changing borders where individuals held citizenship in a previously existing State. The authorities, in some cases, do not extend to some individuals, in particular those who belong to a distinct ethnic __________________ 11 12 13 10/19 European Network on Statelessness, European Roma Rights Centre, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, “Roma belong: statelessness, discrimination and marginalisation of Roma in the western Balkans and Ukraine” (Budapest, October 2017). Available at www.errc.org/cms/upload/ file/roma-belong.pdf. Saba Sharma, “India’s plan to tweak its citizenship law will fundamentally alter the country”, India Quartz, 9 July 2018. Available at https://qz.com/13 21289/why-tweaking-indias-citizenshiplaw-is-a-bad-idea/. For example, in May 2017, West Africa became the first region to develop a binding regional action plan, under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States, with the goal of eradicating statelessness. 18-12048