Chris Nash, Director, European
Network on Statelessness*
Last week the European Network on
Statelessness launched its detailed
analysis of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. Our commentary focuses on
the impact the proposals set out by the European Commission in September
(discussed here
and here
on this blog) would have on the fundamental rights of stateless migrants and
refugees, and makes concrete recommendations on how these should be addressed
as an integral part of negotiations on, and implementation of the Pact.
As it was presented, the Pact
makes no mention of the rights of stateless people, nor does it provide any
clarity on how to respond to the specific protection challenges faced by
stateless refugees and migrants. The existing EU asylum and migration acquis contains
no reference to the rights due to stateless people under international law, so
perhaps we should not have been surprised by the Pact’s blind spot in this
area, despite previous dedicated European
Council Conclusions on Statelessness, and research clearly showing that
whether someone is stateless impacts
on their migration journey in innumerable ways.
We know that more than 3%
of asylum applicants to the EU are registered as stateless or ‘of
unknown nationality’. And the true figure is likely much higher given the
lack of tools to identify and record statelessness at Europe’s
borders. There is currently no mechanism to register statelessness on arrival
so stateless refugees and migrants are often wrongly ‘assigned’ a nationality
by officials based on their country of origin or the languages they speak. Many
more people from countries where discriminatory laws, state succession,
nationality stripping, or protracted displacement mean they have lost or never
acquired a nationality are invisible in the statistics. We know of people from
Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and the former Soviet Union, among many others, who
have struggled for years to have their statelessness recognised by authorities
in Europe. Whether someone is stateless not only impacts on asylum
decision-making, but also on the nationality rights of their children, as well
as on access to related procedures like family reunification or resettlement,
not to mention inclusion or the possibility of return.
A precondition for a more
harmonised and horizontal approach to statelessness across EU asylum and
migration acquis is to improve identification and recording of statelessness,
referral to appropriate determination procedures (including dedicated
Statelessness Determination Procedures (SDPs)), access to protection, and
measures to support integration and inclusion. This would help end the harmful
cycles of criminalisation, detention, and enforced destitution that many
stateless people in Europe currently face. Put simply, we are urging the
realisation of the rights that stateless people, including children, are
already entitled to under international law.
We therefore propose including
within the Pact, a clear reference to the 1954 Convention and the definition of
a stateless person, as well as a requirement to screen for and record ‘initial
indications of statelessness’ at the border and refer people to appropriate
determination procedures (including SDPs). Facilitating data collection on
statelessness in EU databases will also be crucial as part of proposed plans
under the revised Eurodac Proposal. The very nature of statelessness can mean
that a stateless person has no country to which they can return. We therefore
call for exempting stateless people from return sponsorship, ensuring
statelessness-related barriers to return are acknowledged and that referrals
are made to SDPs from return procedures.
It is positive that, as a measure
to facilitate inclusion, the Pact proposals include an amendment to the
Long-Term Residence Directive to shorten the period of time that beneficiaries
of international protection should have to wait to obtain long-term residence
status to three years. We strongly recommend that beneficiaries of protection
under the 1954 Convention (‘stateless status’) are explicitly included in this
amendment.
Mainstreaming statelessness in
the work of the Migration Preparedness and Crisis Network and including a
subsection on statelessness in the Commission’s Migration Management Reports
will be crucial for ensuring that migration-related information on
statelessness is collected and shared in a coordinated and integrated manner.
In addition, EASO’s welcome attention to the issue of statelessness in recent
publications should be built on by ensuring that statelessness is
mainstreamed across the work of the new EU Asylum Agency. The positive focus on
monitoring introduced in the draft Pact proposals must also involve integrating
the rights of stateless people under international law into guidance on
fundamental rights monitoring.
Further, it is vital to counter
residual questions about relevance or competency often mistakenly put forward
as stumbling blocks on the path to progress. We are not questioning that EU
action must go hand-in-hand with a concerted effort by States to uphold their
international obligations, facilitate naturalisation and ensure their
nationality laws prevent new cases of statelessness arising. But the EU is
lagging behind other regions of the world in global efforts to eradicate
statelessness and can no longer ignore the need to harmonise its approach to
stateless refugees and migrants if it is to remain credible as a bastion of
rule of law and human rights. Stateless people and affected communities must be
central to these efforts. We believe that the European Pact on Migration and
Asylum could and should be the occasion to make this happen.
For further information:
European Network on Statelessness, Statelessness
and the EU Pact on Asylum and Migration: Analysis and Recommendations,
January 2021
European Network on
Statelessness, Stateless Journeys
knowledge hub
European Network on
Statelessness, Statelessness
Index
European Network on
Statelessness, No
child should be stateless: Ensuring the right to a nationality for children in
migration in Europe, April 2020
European Network on
Statelessness, Protecting
Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention: An Agenda for Change, April
2017
Barnard & Peers: chapter 26
JHA4: chapter I.5
Photo: (Copyright) UNHCR/Alfredo D’Amato
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