As part of its campaign to protect stateless persons in Europe, the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) has gathered testimonies from stateless migrants across the continent.
While just a small snapshot of Europe’s total stateless population, these too long unheard voices speak powerfully to the human impact that statelessness has on people living in Europe. ENS hopes that their voices can help persuade European leaders to prioritise as a matter of urgency, the strengthening of protection for stateless persons. The stories are organised around four themes which emerged when ENS and its members conducted interviews in 11 countries across Europe, namely: detention, destitution, life in limbo and waiting to belong. Some of the testimonies gathered cut across more than one of these themes which in practice are very often interconnected. In order to protect the identities of these courageous individuals, real names have not been used. To be without documents and a nationality is as if you never existed in this world.
ISA,
A STATELESS PERSON FROM FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
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There are estimated to be over 600,000 stateless people living in Europe today. A relatively small minority has arrived within mixed migration flows, and were either stateless prior to departure from their country of origin or have since become stateless. Despite near universal ratification of relevant international instruments such as the 1954 Statelessness Convention (which provide a set of rights for stateless persons), the hitherto slow-paced development and implementation of effective identification and protection mechanisms for stateless migrants means that they are among the most vulnerable people in Europe. They often face years of uncertainty, destitution and repeated, lengthy immigration detention.
Yet the solution is relatively simple, and can be achieved by the establishment of dedicated determination procedures that are fair, efficient and easily accessible. This enables states to identify and regularise stateless persons on their territory, thereby both fulfilling their obligations under relevant international treaties and providing a sustainable policy solution for individuals who cannot be removed. For example, the UK recently took this step but remains one of only eight European countries which have these systems in place. ENS has published a Good Practice Guide on Statelessness Determination and the Protection Status of Stateless Persons
(available at www.statelessness.eu) which is intended as a tool to assist states considering the introduction of a procedure or the improvement of an existing one.
INTRODUCTION
A stateless person is someone who has no nationality. They are not Japanese, not Cuban, not Danish, not Ugandan
– they do not enjoy the legal bond of nationality with any state. International law defines a stateless person as someone “who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law” (Article 1 of the 1954 Statelessness Convention). Imagine what life would be like if you did not have a passport and were not considered to belong anywhere. Stateless people face numerous difficulties in their daily lives: they face often insurmountable barriers accessing health care, education, employment opportunities, property rights and the ability to move freely in Europe. It may be impossible for them to get married, open a bank account or get a driving licence – many of the things that most European citizens take for granted.
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Many stateless persons in Europe have claimed asylum, sometimes simply because in the absence of a statelessness determination procedure, this was the only option open to them to try and regularise their stay. In the event of asylum being refused (whether rightly or wrongly), many stateless persons are exposed to arbitrary long-term detention precisely because, lacking a nationality, they most likely cannot be removed as no other state will accept them. In some
cases an individual’s statelessness will only become apparent following unsuccessful efforts by a host state to re-document them during an attempted deportation process. Recent research by UNHCR has revealed the long-term detention of stateless persons to be a problem in several European countries (available at www.refworld.org/statelessness.html). The detrimental impact on stateless persons – both before, during and after detention – can be severe and is
completely avoidable, as evidenced by these testimonies.
STILL STATELESS, STILL DETAINED
LUKA
Luka was born in Ukraine when it was still a part of the former USSR. After growing up in an orphanage, he moved to Slovakia in 1991 when he was only 15 years old. He has never possessed any documents establishing a nationality. As a result, since becoming an adult, Luka has been repeatedly detained in Slovakia, including while police investigated the possibility of removing him to Ukraine. However, such attempts have proved fruitless because Ukraine refuses to accept him as a national. On the last occasion Luka was detained for 14 months in 2010. When ordering his release the court found that his expulsion from Slovakia was not possible and Luka was finally granted tolerated stay.
However, his problems are far from over. Despite having lived in Slovakia for over 20 years, Luka is still not recognised as being stateless and his tolerated stay status does not allow him to work or to have health insurance. He cannot marry his partner or be registered officially as the father of his son. Recently his application to renew his tolerated stay was refused due to his inability to submit new documents from the Ukrainian embassy. He was subsequently fined for his illegal stay. This cycle shows no sign of ending.
Provided by the Human Rights League, Slovakia.
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BOBAN
Boban is a stateless Roma from Macedonia. Having faced discrimination his whole life – denied access to secondary school education, the right to work, the right to marry or to access social security – he decided to travel irregularly to claim asylum in Belgium in 2005. His claim was rejected so he tried to claim asylum in Luxembourg but was returned to Belgium under the Dublin Regulation. In 2008 he applied for regularisation as a stateless person, and although the process was slow his application was granted in 2009 after the Macedonian Office of Internal Affairs wrote a letter confirming that he was not a citizen of Macedonia. However, Boban was shocked to discover that his new status still gave him no right to stay in Belgium. It granted him no permission to work and no entitlement to housing or social assistance. Living destitute, his only option was again to apply for asylum.
When this was refused he tried to claim asylum in Austria and Germany but on both occasions he was sent back to Belgium. On his return be claimed asylum for a sixth time and after this was rejected he was detained for three weeks even though the Belgian authorities already had confirmation from Macedonia that he was not a citizen so could not be removed there. Although now out of detention, he remains in limbo and with no hope for the future.
Provided by Flemmish Refugee Action
ROMAN
Roman was born in Kosovo in the 1960’s. His father was a Yugoslav citizen and his mother was a citizen of the USSR. Early in his life, Roman’s mother took him to Russia to live with his grandmother. However, before he was old enough to obtain an ID as proof of his nationality, his grandmother died and Roman left Russia to travel around Europe. He came to Slovakia more than 20 years ago but he has remained in limbo ever since due to his lack of a nationality. He describes having been held in an immigration centre on six or seven occasions due his lack of nationality or ID. Back in 2005, he was issued with an expulsion order and a 10 year re-entry ban. However, he cannot leave the country he cannot re-enter, making the ban cruelly ironic. Instead, since 2006 he has had his tolerated stay periodically extended every six months but he remains unable to get on with his life. His lack of a permanent regularised status prevents him from working or accessing other benefits which in turn impacts on his ability to care for his disabled partner, a Slovakian citizen.
He cannot apply to naturalise as a Slovakian citizen because he has a criminal record due to his failure to comply with his original expulsion order (despite this being beyond his control). He has no solution in sight.
Provided by the Human Rights League, Slovakia
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NATASHA
Natasha was trafficked to Slovakia in 1991 and forced into prostitution. She was born and had lived her entire life in a region of the former USSR (Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine) which in 1991 became Moldova.
Despite escaping her captors, she thereafter spent almost 20 years in Slovakia as an irregular migrant with no documents. She tried to contact the Moldovan Embassy to obtain documentation and proof of nationality but this was located in Vienna and she was not able to cross the border without a passport. Her letters to the Embassy had no effect. She applied for asylum several times but always without a result. She was detained repeatedly while the police unsuccessfully tried to deport her from Slovakia. Hardest of all, her two children – both Slovak citizens – were placed in care without her consent while she was detained. This had a devastating impact on her.
Following her release from a period in detention in 2011, based on appeals submitted, the court and later the Slovak authorities recognised that her deportation was not possible while her citizenship was still undetermined.
She was reunited with her children. Eventually in 2012 she was able to make use of a discretionary power enabling her to be granted permanent residence as a stateless person. After more than 22 years spent in Slovakia she was finally able to acquire all the necessary documents – a residence permit, travel document (Convention Travel Document) and health insurance card in order to get on with her life. However, Slovakia still lacks a dedicated statelessness determination procedure to protect all stateless migrants in this situation and to prevent their arbitrary detention.
Provided by the Human Rights League, Slovakia.
RASHID
Rashid was born in Myanmar. He fled to Bangladesh aged 12 with his mother in 1992 after his father, who was a Muslim rights activist, was killed and his sister was arrested. He lived in Bangladesh for 20 years, first in a refugee camp and then in several villages. Before Rashid’s mother passed away in 2002 she explained to Rashid that he did not possess a valid identity document because the Rohingya of Myanmar had been deprived of their Myanmar nationality. Rashid travelled irregularly to the Netherlands in 2012. He applied for asylum twice and his request was refused both times.
After the second rejection he was kept in immigration detention for 8 months. He was eventually released after being presented to the Bangladeshi and Myanmar authorities, both of which refused to accept him as a national. However, following his release he was unable to regularise his stay and he remains without status andsleeps in a homeless shelter. He has lived with instability his entire life and now finds himself alone in a foreign country suffering from nightmares, psychological issues and high blood pressure (even though he is still a young man). He cannot lead a normal life in the Netherlands but equally he cannot go and live anywhere else.
Provided by the Tilburg University Statelessness Programme
I cannot go anywhere. I cannot go back to Bangladesh because I only had a temporary legal stay in a refugee camp.
I cannot go back to Myanmar because my nationality has been withdrawn.
RASHID,
A STATELESS PERSON BORN IN MAUNGDAW, MYANMAR
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Stateless migrants are particularly vulnerable to destitution when they cannot be deported but equally have no route to regularise their stay in the host state and thereby acquire an entitlement to work or to receive social assistance. Yet, where countries have ratified the 1954 Statelessness Convention, such individuals should in fact be entitled to these rights – the failure is one of identification and implementation. This is one reason why states must put in place dedicated statelessness determination procedures, so they can identify who on their territories is entitled to the rights owing under this Convention. Even where countries have in place a statelessness determination procedure, if applicants are not entitled to social assistance pending a decision then they too can experience long periods of destitution. Importantly, states also have obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights to avoid destitution among all people, including the stateless.
STILL SUFFERING, STILL DESTITUTE
ISA
Isa was born in Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia. He fled to Belgrade following the 1999 conflict, but because he lacked any identity papers, he was never registered as an internally displaced person. His very first document, his birth certificate, was only issued in 2013 when he was 29.
However, to this day he remains stateless as he cannot inherit nationality from his father (who is also stateless) or his mother (who left him when he was only two years old).
He cannot get married, have his paternity of his children recognised or visit his family in Kosovo. Isa faces destitution because he cannot work legally, receive social assistance or register for health insurance. He lives with his family in an informal settlement in an improvised barrack made of wooden planks, boards and various waste materials, without water, electricity or sewage – yet cannot apply for social housing. He describes feeling like he had never existed. His only option is to try to naturalise as a Serbian citizen but he will find it very difficult to fulfil the requirement of providing documentary proof of his residence. In the meantime he remains stuck in a vicious circle and facing a life in limbo. He cannot regularise his status on account of being stateless because Serbia lacks any procedure to determine this.
Provided by Praxis Serbia
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XAVIER
Xavier was a citizen of the former Yugoslavia and was born in what is now the territory of Kosovo. He fled Kosovo during the conflict in 1999, during which time he lost his passport. He transited through various Europeancountries before arriving in Poland in 2004. Expulsion proceedings were started against him but these could not be executed because Serbia refused to accept him as a national. These proceedings took 12 months during which time Xavier could not work or benefit from social assistance or healthcare and he was therefore destitute.
When it became clear that his expulsion was impossible he was eventually granted a form of tolerated stay.
However, this does not permit him to travel so he cannot return to Kosovo to try to prove his entitlement to nationality. Xavier says he never really appreciated how important nationality is until he lost his.
Provided by the Halina Niec Legal Aid Center, Poland
LEJLA
Lejla was born in what is now Croatia to parents originating from Kosovo. Despite being registered in the Croatian birth registry as having Serbian nationality, it subsequently became apparent that this was never recorded with the competent Serbian authorities. In 1991 she moved to Kosovo and resided at her parents’ birthplace until the 1999 conflict when she was forced to move to Serbia. It was at this point that Lejla discovered that she had no nationality. She could not claim Croatian nationality since her parents were not Croatian nationals and she did not fullfil the other conditions necessary to acquire this. She tried to prove that she had acquired Serbian nationality at birth, but without success, as the
civil registry records in Kosovo, in which her parents claim they were registered as Serbian nationals were destroyed during the 1999 conflict. The only option open to her has been to try to initiate a naturalisation procedure as a refugee/internally displaced person who was born in another republic of the former Yugoslavia.
However, given Lejla’s circumstances (she has never been recognised as a refugee from Croatia and she was not registered as an internally displaced person from Kosovo either) there is no guarantee that this will succeed. While her application is pending, Lejla lives in poverty in an informal Roma settlement, unable to be employed legally, to marry the father of her children or to access rights to health care and social assistance. Lejla has three children
who do not have their personal names determined and for whom she cannot obtain birth or citizenship certificates.
Provided by Praxis Serbia
I only want to work. Why they do not give me other residence permit so I am allowed to work? They force me to work illegally. I am tired.
LUKA, A STATELESS PERSON BORN IN UKRAINE
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STEVEN
Steven was born in Mozambique, but has no evidence of this or of any entitlement to Mozambique or any other nationality. He spent his entire childhood travelling between Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia with his mother. This cycle continued until 2000 when his mother left him alone in Zimbabwe, after which he has not had any further contact with her. He subsequently left Zimbabwe and travelled to the UK where he claimed asylum in July 2003. His asylum claim was refused, as was his appeal in December 2003. However, despite Steven’s full cooperation, no removal order has ever been made by the UK Home Office due to uncertainty about his nationality. Steven has approached the Zimbabwean,
Zambian and Mozambican authorities but none have confirmed him as a national. Over more than a decade in limbo, Steven was denied any opportunity to regularise his status which ultimately led to the end of a relationship with his former partner, who subsequently left the UK with their child. Unable to work, he was forced to rely on the charity of friends or to sleep in a homeless shelter where he also helped out during the daytime. Although
the introduction of a statelessness determination procedure in the UK in April 2013 has offered a ray of light on his situation, his application to regularise as a stateless person has now been pending for over six months. During this time he remains ineligible to receive state support so he faces the same destitution that he did beforehand. He has a new partner and dreams of becoming a building surveyor but remains unable to move his life forward.
Provided by Asylum Aid
PETER
Peter fled his village in Sudan as a child during the 1980s after which he was taken to Kenya by an American catholic missionary. At 18 he was forced to leave the mission. Without any roots in Kenya and unable to return to Sudan due to the continuing civil war, he decided
to travel to Europe. He arrived in France in 2007 and claimed asylum but this was subsequently rejected.
After years of homelessness he applied for voluntary return to Sudan. However, his return proved impossible because the Sudanese authorities refused to recognise him as one of their citizens. It was at this point that he realised he was stateless. In October 2012 Peter applied
for statelessness status in France after being informed about this possibility by an NGO. France’s statelessness determination procedure is not widely known, can be slow and applicants have no entitlement to social assistance or other rights (except a minimal entitlement to health insurance). Peter remains at constant risk of being arrested by the police. He currently does not have any housing rights but is able to find a place to sleep in homeless shelters at least 3 times a week. While he awaits a decision his situation is no better than previouslyand he remains in severe destitution.
Provided by Forum Réfugiés-Cosi
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Stateless persons often express bewilderment at their plight. Every day they have to live without being able to do simple things that most people take for granted such as going to university, getting a job or getting married. Even just getting a driving licence or a library card can prove impossible. The impact of statelessness robs individuals of what may be the best years of their lives, and the uncertainty it brings robs them of their futures. This is why urgent
action is essential to protect the stateless.
STILL UNRECOGNISED, STILL IN LIMBO AZAT
Azat was born in Kazakhstan to Kazakh parents who moved to Poland when he was four years old, where they subsequently overstayed their visas and never obtained a residence permit for him. Azat never had his own Kazakh passport as he had entered Poland on his mother’s passport (which was later stolen along with his birth certificate). In 2011, when new Polish legislation introduced an amnesty, his father successfully applied for temporary stay in Poland. By then Azat was 21 and no longer a dependent so he made his own application. He has spent almost his entire life in Poland and Polish is his only language. However, qualifying under this amnesty has proved impossible because he has no passport and no proof of his birth in Kazakhstan.
Despite repeated efforts he has not been able to obtain any documentation from the Kazakh authorities confirming whether he is a citizen or not. Equally, there is no procedure in Poland for him to be able to regularise his stay on account of being stateless. Since revealing himself to the Polish authorities he has lived in constant fear of immigration detention which could be imposed in order to attempt his deportation to a country which he does not know and which is unlikely to accept him. He is unable to work lawfully and is prevented from exercising many social rights, including access to medical assistance and social security. For now he lives in limbo not knowing what the future will bring.
To Sign The Petition Click The Link below:
http://www.statelessness.eu/act-now-on-statelessness
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