Editorial: Taking steps to improve how statelessness is identified and addressed in the refugee context
European Network on Statelessness
Everyone has the right to a nationality.
Nina Murray, Head of Policy and Advocacy, European Network on Statelessness
They registered me as Syrian, and I didn't tell them that I am ‘maktouma’ [stateless]... In a later interview, I tried to explain that I am stateless and had many problems in Syria, but they didn't really listen or didn't understand.??
- Rojin, Syrian Kurdish refugee
I tried to show the record during the first reception interview, but they were not interested. They said that we are Iraqis, I explained that we are not, that we are Bidoon from Kuwait.??
- Abdullah, Kuwaiti Bidoon refugee??
Over the years, working with stateless refugees across Europe, we have heard too many stories like those of Rojin and Abdullah. How the failure to identify (and understand) someone’s statelessness has contributed to confusion, credibility questions, riskier journeys, detention, destitution, and more.??
Failure to identify statelessness leads to people falling through the cracks?
The failure to identify statelessness - or to act when someone’s nationality is recorded as ‘unknown’ - puts people at risk and can cause serious human rights violations. Nationality matters at all stages of the asylum process. Access to the territory and an asylum procedure can hinge on nationality. Nationality - whether someone has a country to go back to - is key to decisions on detention and return. Nationality matters when establishing family links to reunite family members, it matters in resettlement processes, and, critically, it matters for children – the right to a legal identity and nationality is a fundamental right under the Child Rights Convention. No child should have to grow up stateless, but they are, here in Europe, because we are not identifying and addressing their statelessness.??
That’s why our recent Stateless Journeys campaign called on European governments and the EU to provide the full rights and support owed to stateless refugees and to better prioritise this in asylum and migration policy. As I reflected back in May, the campaign and linked advocacy and awareness-raising activities have had an impact. EU and (some) domestic laws have been reformed to better respond to statelessness in recent years. The 2024 Pact on Migration and Asylum for the first time introduced binding provisions in EU asylum acquis that clarify the international legal definition of a stateless person, require Member States to identify indications of statelessness, respect their international obligations towards stateless people, strengthen their protection and access to fundamental rights, and register where an individual claims to be stateless pending a determination.?
We have also seen increased visibility for statelessness in global processes such as the Global Refugee Forum, and more States taking steps to accede to the statelessness conventions and establish statelessness determination procedures. However, there is very often still a gap between public commitments and legal reforms on the one hand, and the experiences ‘on the ground’ of stateless individuals trying to navigate complex procedures and realise their rights.?
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Our new tool to help frontline practitioners to identify and address statelessness?
How poorly understood statelessness and nationality matters are in the asylum context is a source of immense frustration for those affected and the few specialist organisations trying to help them. At a very practical level, frontline refugee practitioners (whether government officials, NGOs, lawyers, or community volunteers) lack the incentive, capacity, and resources to be able to identify when someone might be stateless and ensure that this is followed up on so that stateless refugees access the rights and services they are entitled to.??
To help address this, we have worked with our members to develop a practical tool for frontline asylum practitioners to identify when someone might be stateless and respond accordingly. After a successful pilot in France, we worked with lawyers and stateless-led organisations to develop a comprehensive template guide to drafting a country-specific toolkit that provides key definitions and general information about the causes of statelessness and how to identify it, information about determining and preventing statelessness, and resources and support for stateless people that can be tailored and adapted to the national context. Five national toolkits (for Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Romania, and Turkey) have been developed so far using the Guide.??
The toolkits will be invaluable to EU Member States as they gear-up their asylum systems to implement the new Pact instruments over the next 18 months, including those new provisions requiring that indications of statelessness are identified and recorded at screening pending formal determination. Alongside this, it will be important to upskill frontline practitioners, update and mainstream statelessness across other relevant guidance, tools, and training, including those produced by the EU Asylum Agency, Frontex, and other relevant actors. As the complex new Pact is implemented and further reforms are considered, it will be vital not to lose sight of the importance of identifying and responding to statelessness, alongside the protection of other fundamental rights currently under threat from trends towards securitisation, externalisation, and instrumentalisation of people on the move.?
Building capacity across Europe and beyond?
At ENS, our focus is on the practical support that we and our expert members with lived and professional experience can provide to those practitioners coming into contact with stateless refugees every day. Our longer-term ambition is to attract the resourcing necessary to develop more toolkits to cover as many European countries as possible. As a step towards this goal, this week, we were excited to launch a new two-year project funded by the US State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration to further strengthen the capacity of frontline asylum practitioners to address and identify statelessness.??
This new funding will enable us to roll out toolkits to five more European countries (Italy, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine) and to work with our colleagues at the Central Asian Network on Statelessness to adapt the toolkit for their region, piloting it in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. We will also hold an international conference in Istanbul later next year to share and exchange learning on the identification of statelessness and engage a diverse range of stakeholders from across the globe.??
A key element of the project will also be to evaluate and learn from how the toolkits already developed are being used, including with the support and advice of a community advisory board. Our vision for a global network of practitioners who are skilled in identifying statelessness and able to refer people to appropriate legal pathways to protection is one that we hope everyone can get behind and work with us – and stateless refugees - to realise.?