Understanding Statelessness

Do you have a nationality?

Have you ever considered yourself privileged due to having a passport/national ID?

Have you ever thought about the benefits of having a nationality?

These are questions that we never thought we had to deliberate. However, due to the current political landscape, they cannot be ruled out. Addressing them is crucial because statelessness is a turbulent characteristic affecting millions of people who, in the eyes of international law and global institutions, do not belong anywhere. They are invisible.

But, how can statelessness be legal?

The answer is, it is not.

And, even most importantly,

Is statelessness ethical?

What is statelessness?

Many of us only think about our citizenship when we travel, vote in elections, apply for jobs, or when our nation competes in international championships. We automatically inherit it when we are born. Our nationality gives us easy access to everything we do. However, some people think and worry daily about their citizenship because they solely do not have one, making them some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

Citizenship is a fundamental element of human security. Besides providing people with an identity and a sense of belonging; it is necessary for freedom of movement, entitles the individual to the protection of the state, and provides a legal basis for the exercise of economic, political and social rights.

Statelessness is the absence of citizenship. It is a synonym of exclusion. The legal definition of a stateless person is “an individual who is not considered as a national by any nation-state under the operation of its law”. In simple terms, a stateless person does not have a nationality of any country. He/She is treated as an international outcast since statelessness is the most severe deprivation of personal power (McDougal et al 1974: 902). Some people are born stateless, but others become stateless.

Statelessness can occur for several reasons: discrimination against ethnic or religious groups, gender, the emergence of new states and transfers of territory between states, and gaps in nationality laws (UNHCR UK 2021).

According to the United Nations (UN), an estimated 12 million people worldwide are denied a nationality, but several human rights institutions suspect that the true number could be higher (UN 2018). As a result, they often are not allowed to go to school, see a doctor, get a job, open a bank account, buy a house or even get married. Stateless people may have difficulty accessing basic human rights such as education, healthcare, and employment. Without these things, they can face a lifetime of obstacles and disappointment.

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

• 15.1. Everyone has the right to a nationality

• 15.2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his/her nationality.

Nevertheless, the article looks very appealing and ethical on paper, but it gives no guidance on how responsibility for granting citizenship should fall on states. States have different laws on this issue. This could explain why the issue of statelessness has received little international attention over the years, even if every 10 minutes a baby is born stateless. The world is still state-centric, allowing the global order to be tremendously hypocritical.

First World countries like European Union members still fail to implement efficient policies to make the road towards citizenship easier. There are currently over 600,000 stateless people in Europe, and it is the most comprehensively mapped region: Latvia and Russia have stateless populations of over 100,000 people, and Estonia, Ukraine, Poland, and Germany all exceed 10.000 individuals.

The Soviet Union (URSS) dissolution provoked mass statelessness in former Soviet republics and the Baltics. Former Soviet states took different approaches to the loss and gain of citizenship, and people who never exchanged their Soviet passports became ultimately stateless. The most vulnerable people in terms of this issue have always been members of ethnic minorities, excluded communities and people from low socio-economic backgrounds due to lack of knowledge about the process of exchanging passports or even to the lack of willingness of other countries to grant citizenship to people from specific backgrounds (International Observatory of Human Rights 2019). Despite the many decades that have passed since the break-up of the URSS, Eastern Europe and the Baltics are home to dozens of thousands of people with no sense of belonging. Who would have thought that a change of national borders could have such an impact 30 years after?

Moreover, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was universally ratified by all the European countries. It expresses that every child born within a countries’ jurisdiction has the right to nationality without discrimination of any kind and irrespective of the child’s or his/her parents birth or another status (European Network on Stateleness 2015: 5, 9). Therefore, according to these lines, they must fulfil the right of every child to acquire a nationality, yet childhood statelessness in Europe persists.

As discussed, statelessness can be caused by the very laws that a country itself implements. The best case study of this is the Ivory Coast, which has the most stateless people living in a country. The government estimates there to be close to 700,000 people living stateless, due to two main reasons. Firstly, during colonial times many people were brought into the country from neighbouring countries to work on plantations and did not receive nationality when the country gained independence. Their descendants still have no nationality despite having been in the country for generations. The other reason is there is no law to protect abandoned children. These children account for 300,000 stateless people living in the Ivory Coast (UNHCR 2021).

However, statelessness can also be from fleeing a country and therefore becoming stateless. Both being stateless and being a refugee overlap. Since both cannot rely on a state as their safety net, they have to look for sympathisers and shelter.

Statelessness and Refugees

Refugees, besides worrying about their lives and support network, they also have to add nationality to the equation. Children born in Europe to refugee parents are easily exposed to statelessness due to discriminatory nationality laws of the country of origin or harsh nationality laws in the host country.

Some refugees are stateless before they depart from their home country, and even statelessness is the reason as to why they left. Since their children will not inherit any nationality, refugee receiving countries must put policies into place to ensure that stateless children born within their borders get a passport. If not, statelessness will keep being passed on to new generations, an alarming fact since the number of refugees worldwide grows overnight.

Nonetheless, children of stateless refugees are also vulnerable to problematic nationality legislation from their home countries. For instance, Syria, the country which has unfolded the largest refugee crises of the XXI century, has a gender-discriminatory nationality law. Nationality is only transferred from father to child (Howard 2017: 283-284). Hence, refugee children of single mothers with an unknown or absent father are at risk of statelessness. Roughly, around 25% of Syrian households are fatherless due to war, and without the father’s presence, there is no proof of nationality. If they become refugees, those children will be stateless.

Moreover, an often-overlooked characteristic of refugees is their inability to take documentation before their departure, demonstrating how third countries fail to empathise with them. Refugees are not migrants. We both were migrants when we moved to Hong Kong for academic purposes. Contrarily, a refugee is a person who needs a sanctuary abroad as it is not safe for them to return to their home country. They have to cross national borders to seek safety from war, conflicts and serious human rights violations (racial, gender, sexual, ethnic and ideological discrimination. No one expects to become a refugee, and many become one overnight.

A doctor heads home from her work, a girl walks to school, etc. They expect tomorrow to be the same as today, but fear can come in moments. It can be the sound of gunfire, the fall of a bomb, a knock at the door. Many of the people forced to flee have just minutes to make vital decisions, to grab what they can and run. Where will they go? How will they travel? What will they take? There are desperate choices, made in moments, and taking documentation with them is not possible sometimes. Failing to bring the necessary documentation can make the birth registration of their children in third countries beyond difficult.

We must remember that the world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record, with 70 million people worldwide forced to flee from home by conflict and persecution at the end of 2018 (UN 2019). The Syrian refugee crisis remains the largest with 5.6 million registered refugees. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion in 2020 found that the Rohingya in Myanmar are the largest stateless population. Data from six countries reported 1.57 million Rohingya refugees, and yet this data is still not comprehensive and does not provide a full picture of the global Rohingya population (ISI 2020: 1-2). This is down to an extreme humanitarian crisis in Myanmar when back in August 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled to escape the military’s crimes against humanity and possible genocide (BBC 2020). Syrians and Rohingya Muslims are just some of the groups of people who would have to make the desperate decision to leave everything behind including nationality.

Additionally, citizenship is crucial for freedom of movement. Therefore, if refugees want to cross borders to go back to their home country or any other third country, they will have to do it illegally, risking their lives given the dangerous chosen routes to not get caught by the authorities.

As Arendt (Hazan 2015) describes it:

“Once they had left their homeland, they were homeless, once they had left their state, they became stateless; once they had been deprived of their human rights they were rightless, the scum of the earth.”

Statelessness and Covid-19

“Even before the pandemic, statelessness has been invisible”

Being a stateless person has encountered new problems due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a stateless person, it is much more difficult to access healthcare, shelter and education. However, these things should be fundamental rights and are necessary for protection from the coronavirus. Stateless people are restricted because without having appropriate ID, they barely get healthcare and economic aid. Furthermore, without financial assistance, they are at risk of becoming homeless, and as a result, an increased risk of infection. A vicious cycle. Besides, as some countries are homeschooling, many stateless families face issues due to language or technology issues (European Network on Stateleness 2015).

However, these are not the only issues the pandemic has caused for stateless people. In the last year, they have encountered the brunt of racist attacks and experienced police new powers, for example, police having the authority to stop and ask for legal documents, leading to arrest and detention.

In addition, the European Network on Stateleness (2015) found in their report there is a lack of accessible information for stateless people to understand Covid-19 impacts and lockdown regulations. They also found a lack of access to free legal support as authorities are providing limited services, leading to delays to applications. Finally, they addressed the fact that the pandemic has caused reduced visibility of the issue of statelessness in the media, as Covid-19 stories will always be prioritised.

However, as scientists raced to create Covid-19 vaccines, the UN and other leading refugee agencies pressed on international countries to not leave stateless people on the fringes.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi said;

“It is critical that vulnerable populations on the move, including refugees and migrants, are not left behind by public health responses. The COVID-19 pandemic shows in no uncertain terms that universal health coverage has never been more relevant. With global forced displacement at record levels, we need greater inclusion and support for the world’s refugees and communities hosting them.”

Whilst the Director of the International Organization for Migration,

“Access to health is a fundamental right, but too often still, those who need it the most – including migrants and forcibly displaced persons – are left out.”

As encouraging as these words are, the reality has not been so fair. Israel quickly became the world leader in vaccinating its population against Covid-19, but almost all Palestinian residents in Gaza and the West Bank are still waiting for their first doses (NYT 2021). This is because unlike Palestinians in East Jerusalem, they do not have Israeli residency status. Therefore, they are stateless. International law clearly states the duty of the occupying powers to provide healthcare, but Israel often argues it is not occupying Gaza nor the West Bank. Arguably, the quickest mechanism to wash your hands of a challenging crisis. Imagine having the chance to save lives, but you neglect that power purposely. The UN human rights body says Israel have a “moral and legal” responsibility to provide equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for all Palestinians (BBC 2021).

There is a strong paradox to Israel’s vaccine scheme in being such a success and yet a violation of fundamental human rights. The virus affects everyone, with or without nationalities. But those without legal status are much more likely to be vulnerable to infection. We need to distribute vaccines fairly and inclusively.

Jordan's exceptional solidarity is setting an example. The country hosts around 1.3 million Syrian refugees and, despite being a developing and lower-middle-income country, it has already vaccinated refugees and stateless people from Syria (ACAPS 2021). They have been included in every aspect of the public health response to the pandemic. Why? Drive and willingness. Because refugees and stateless people are not social outcasts but part of their society. Even the countries struggling the most are being faithful to their morality. Truly inspiring.

Conclusion

The UNHCR launched in November 2014 the #IBelong campaign. Its goal is to end statelessness within ten years by protecting stateless people and preventing the eruption of new cases. Nevertheless, it is a very ambitious goal since refugee flux keeps growing, and governments are closing their borders. Nation-states must act together and implement policies to make birth citizenship or regular citizenship easier and faster.

Because EVERYBODY has the right to say ‘I belong’.

References

ACAPS. (2021). Syrian refugees | ACAPS. [online] Available at: <https://www.acaps.org/country/jordan/crisis/syrian-refugees#:~:text=Jordan%20hosts%20around%20658%2C000%20registered,are%20living%20out%20of%20camps.>

BBC News. (2021). Covid-19: Why are Palestinians behind in vaccine efforts?. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55800921>

BBC News. (2021). Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know about the crisis. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561>

European Network on Stateleness (2015). No Child should be Stateless, p.5, 9.

Hazan, P. (2015). Refugees and the Rights of the "Rightless". JusticeInfoNet. [online] Available at: <https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/2298-refugees-and-the-rights-of-the-rightless.html>

Howard, D. (2017). Analysying the causes of statelessness in Syrian Refugee Children. Texas International Law Journal, p. 283-284.

UNHCR (2021). The lost children of Côte d’Ivoire - IBELONG. [online] Available at: <https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/the-lost-children-of-cote-divoire/>

International Observatory of Human Rights (2021). 30 years of statelessness in the former Soviet Union - International Observatory of Human Rights. [online] Available at: <https://observatoryihr.org/blog/30-years-of-statelessness-in-the-former-soviet-union/>

Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) (2020). Statelessness in number 2020: an overview and analysis of global statistics, p.1-2.

McDougal, M., Lasswell, H. and Chen, L., (1974). Nationality and Human Rights: The Protection of the Individual in External Arenas. The Yale Law Journal, 83(5), p.900.

NYT (2021). Israel’s Vaccine Success Unleashes a Debate on Palestinian Inequities. [online] Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-vaccine.html

UNHCR UK. (2021). Ending Statelessness. [online] Available at: <https://www.unhcr.org/uk/ending-statelessness.html>

Refugees, U. (2021). IOM and UNHCR chiefs stress that COVID-19 underlines the urgent need for universal health coverage. [online] UNHCR. Available at: <https://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/press/2020/12/5fd35fc94/iom-unhcr-chiefs-stress-covid-19-underlines-urgent-need-universal-health.html>

UN News. (2021). ‘12 million’ stateless people globally, warns UNHCR chief in call to States for decisive action. [online] Available at: <https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/11/1025561>