Agony of being stateless
Published On November 15, 2021 » 1099 Views» By Times Reporter » Features
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IT is sad to note that many people continue to remain stateless, with no country to call their home.
Many of these people do not manage to acquire citizenship at the time of their birth for various reasons, among them, their parents not being able to acquire citizenship or permanent residence in the countries they live.
Most such people are born from refugee parents who fail to acquire citizenship for them and by the time they are adults, they discover that they are stateless and have no country to call their own.
It is for this reason that many stateless people usually fail to reach out to authorities about their status for fear of being arrested and subsequently deported.
This continued lack of documentation, such as National Registration Cards, usually makes things difficult for these stateless people.
Many end up failing to get jobs.
They cannot access services.
They cannot travel.
They cannot marry or even support themselves.
As if that is not enough, they lack a sense of belonging.
In their quest to resolve their lack of nationality and be recognized, these people go through a lot of stress as they encounter expensive and frustrating processes.
In countries like Britain, stateless people told journalists that they were frustrated and distressedby the long process and the limitations their lack of status involves.
Many cited a deterioration in mental health and raised concerns around the quality of reviews, difficulties obtaining evidence, the use of detention and the overall process.
One of the issues highlighted was the difficulty faced by those trapped in the system to work legally to support themselves during the years without an official status.
“Some people have had the same issue for 20 years and have not been issued with work permits to let them work while they are waiting for documentation,” said one person who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In Zambia, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said it has a global mandate to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness, and protect stateless people.
In a recent statement, the UNHCR reported that there were 4.2 million stateless people in 76 countries at the end of 2019.
However, the number is estimated to be much higher as there is a lack of data.
The UNHCR, in 2013, developed a global action plan with states, civil society and international organisations to fight statelessness, and in 2014, it launched #iBelong, a campaign to end statelessness within a decade.
Progress has been made, with some countries introducing measures to ensure that all children born in their countries have their births registered, with some countries adopting a statelessness determination process.
The UNHCR has since urged governments to accelerate progress and resolve the plight of the world’s stateless people.
In the statement issued last week, the UNHCR said that more action is needed to resolve the plight of millions around the world who are still without citizenship.
The statement came in the wake of celebrations to mark seven years since the launch of UNHCR’s #IBelongcampaign to end statelessness.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, “Significant progress has been made over the past few years, but governments must do more to close the legal and policy gaps that continue to leave millions of people stateless or allow children to be born into statelessness.”
The UNHCR said statelessness, or the situation of not being recognized as a citizen by any country, affects millions of people around the world.
Stateless people cannot often access the most basic of rights, including being able to go to school, work legally, access health services, marry, or register the birth of a child.
Since UNHCR launched its #IBelong campaign in 2014 to raise attention and advocate for an end to global statelessness, more than 400,000 stateless people in 27 countries have acquired nationality, while tens of thousands of people across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas now have a pathway to citizenship as a result of newly enacted legislative changes.
Over the past seven years, 29 states have acceded to the Statelessness Conventions, signaling strengthened political will to end statelessness.
“We are encouraged by this global momentum to tackle statelessness, which with concerted efforts by States, we can eradicate. But unless progress accelerates, the millions who remain deprived of a nationality will be stuck in a human rights limbo, unable to access the most basic rights,” MrGrandi said.
He further said statelessness has many causes, which are typically the result of gaps or flaws in nationality laws and how they are implemented.
Discrimination, including on the basis of ethnicity, religion and gender – is a major driver of statelessness.
As the UNHCR rightly points out, stateless people are usually deprived of legal rights or basic services.
This leaves them politically and economically marginalized and vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation and abuse.
They may also not be able to access COVID-19 testing, treatment or vaccination, and may have little access to support or protection in the face of climate risks.
The UNHCR said governments hold power to enact legal and policy reforms that can help stateless people in their territory acquire citizenship or prevent statelessness from occurring in the first place, sometimes with the stroke of a pen, or a relatively simple legal change.
It remains an easily avoidable and solvable issue.
In Zambia, Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister Jack Mwiimbusaid to prevent statelessness, efforts are being made to ensure that all refugees and former refugees have access to civil registration documents and are included in the National Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Strategic Plan.
Mr Mwiimbu was speaking during the 72nd Session of the Executive Committee Programmelast month.
He said progress has also been made in the completion of the national action plan to deal with statelessness, in addition to taking the necessary steps to accede to the 1961 Convention on the Prevention of statelessness in line with the UNHCR’s#IBelong campaign.
Worldwide, UNHCR’s statistical reporting counts 4.2 million stateless people in some 94 countries.
Given that most countries do not collect any data on statelessness, the actual figure is believed to be substantially higher.
To date, 96 states are party to the 1954 UN Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, and 77 are party to the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
Since the start of the #IBelongcampaign, some states, such as the Kyrgyzstan, resolved all known cases of statelessness and 11 others made progress towards resolving major situations of statelessness.
Additionally. 17 states have also established statelessness determination procedures to identify stateless people on their territories, with some offering a facilitated pathway to citizenship.
Further, 12 states have created processes to facilitate naturalizing stateless migrants while14 of them have amended their nationality laws to grant nationality to children born in their territory who would otherwise be stateless.
About twostates have reformed their nationality laws to allow mothers to confer nationality to their children on an equal basis with fathers.
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