UN experts on Thursday expressed deep concern that the impending deadline in the Indian state of Assam to inalise a process to determine citizenship could see the world’s total stateless population explode overnight by more than 4 million. The independent experts said that the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) list, published in June 2018, could potentially have far-reaching consequences, predominantly affecting members of minority groups living in Assam deemed to have failed to establish that they are citizens of India.

The experts are Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Seong-Phil Hong, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

“We welcome the recent extension from 15 December to 31 December 2018 by the Supreme Court of India of the deadline by which objections to the original exclusions could be made,” the UN experts said.   “However, the underlying issues with the process, including a lack of clarity regarding the determination of exclusion have not been resolved,” they added.