Living in a state of statelessness

Stateless people are those who are not considered as nationals by any state. Given that states are charged with guaranteeing our human rights and providing us with the documents we need to travel, to marry and to work, not having citizenship of any state is problematic.

Fahad Al-Enzi (name changed to protect identity) is currently in Ireland. He has no nationality, no citizenship or the rights, privileges and duties such a status would bestow on him. He is stateless. The authorities have asked him to get documentation from the Kuwaiti embassy but they won’t provide any because they say he is not a Kuwaiti citizen. He is a Kuwaiti Bidoon, and like over 100,000 others in the country in which he was born, he is not recognised as a citizen.

His situation is not unique. There are at least 10 million stateless people worldwide, people with no nationality through no fault of their own. Some end up on the wrong side of redrawn borders. Others inherit their status from their parents, unable to become citizens despite having deep-rooted and longstanding ties to their communities and countries. Under some legal regimes women cannot pass on their nationality to their children. Other people become stateless due to administrative obstacles; they fall through the cracks of a system that ignores or has forgotten them.

Thankfully, there are signs of a shift in international attitudes. Just three years ago, there were barely 100 states party to the two statelessness treaties – the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Today the number of accessions stands at 144, which UNHCR believes is a sign of the requisite momentum needed to eradicate statelessness within 10 years.

Already, legal changes in Bangladesh have enabled 300,000 stateless Urdu-speakers to become citizens. In Kyrgyzstan, more than 65,000 former USSR citizens have become Kyrgyz citizens since 2009. The solution for many stateless people will need to be found in the countries where they live. For stateless people outside of their birth country, other states will need to assist in finding solutions for them. This includes Ireland, which signed up to the two statelessness conventions in 1962 and 1973. There are a number of good provisions in Irish law aimed at preventing statelessness and assisting stateless people. For example, a child born in Ireland is an Irish citizen from birth if he or she is not entitled to the citizenship of any country.

Naturalisation

The same applies for abandoned newborn children, where a presumption of birth in Ireland to at least one Irish citizen parent applies. There are favourable naturalisation provisions too for stateless people for whom the length of required residence in Ireland is reduced from five years to three years. Stateless people can apply for a Statelessness Travel document to be issued by the Irish State. The difficulty is that to avail of these favourable provisions, a declaration of statelessness is required. But like many countries Ireland does not have a mechanism in place to provide such declarations.

So what to do? An increasing number of countries have recently introduce d statelessness determination procedures. The UK introduced a procedure last year and Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey are looking at ways to improve the identification of stateless people. Statelessness determination procedures have long been established in countries including France, Hungary, Italy and Spain.

The case for the establishment of a such a procedure in Ireland needs to be made in terms of the number of people it may be relevant for, the impact the procedure would have on them and the possible other consequences.

UNHCR has undertaken a scoping exercise on statelessness in Ireland to advance this case. It is not possible to put a figure on the number of stateless people in Ireland, in the absence of a procedure and coherent data. However there are some relevant data sources.

Over the past 12 years, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which assesses eligibility for refugee status found that 82 people were stateless but not refugees. While these findings were made strictly for the purposes of the refugee process, they indicate a small group of people who may be stateless and for whom there is no clear procedure to follow to resolve their case. There have also been a number of High Court cases involving stateless or potentially stateless persons.

While Irish officials have undertaken a range of efforts to try to resolve individual cases, the lack of official documentation or a statelessness declaration often continue to pose significant problems.

Durable solution

Introducing a statelessness determination procedure would enable stateless people to pursue a durable solution to their case by acquiring or reacquiring the nationality of their country of former habitual residence or by regularising their situation in Ireland, allowing them to access their rights under the 1954 Convention. Resolution of their cases would enable them to contribute fully to the communities in which they live and reduce the burden on the State. The evidence from other jurisdictions that have introduced statelessness determination procedures is that they have not led to an increase in the stateless populations of those countries, nor have they produced a pull factor.

In recent months the Irish authorities have issued the first two declarations of statelessness. UNHCR welcomes this development and stands ready to support the authorities in further developing arrangements or mechanisms which can be accessed by stateless people in Ireland.

Unlike so many problems facing governments today, this is one UNHCR believes can be resolved globally with enough political will.

Sophie Magennis is UNHCR head of office. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees this week launched its global campaign to end statelessness worldwide by 2024.