Dhaka, March 15 -- Millions around the world, including Rohingyas, are deprived of citizenship because they belong to specific minorities, UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Fernand de Varennes has said.

"Statelessness is first and foremost a minority issue because more than three quarters of the world's official 10 million stateless people are from minorities," he told the Human Rights Council in Geneva recently.

"The consequences and prospects for them, their children and generations of their descendants could be dismal and tragic," he said.

"The horrific human tragedies and the humanitarian crisis involving the one million or so members of the Rohingya minority, who are stateless, highlight the extent of the issue," Varennes s...