Issue 32 April 2009 No legal identity. Few rights. Hidden from society. Forgotten. Stateless Plus articles on: Europe-Africa cooperation, Colombia, Ecuador, disaster IDPs, migration policies in Europe, reproductive health care in emergencies, cash grants for refugees, a four-article mini-feature on refugee FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY status determination... and more. Forced Migration Review FMR31 Forced Migration Review (FMR) provides a forum for the regular exchange of practical Elliott Steve from the editors of experience, information and ideas between researchers, refugees and internally displaced people, and those who work with them. It is published in English, Arabic, Spanish and French by the Refugee Studies Centre of the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. A ‘stateless person’ is someone who is not recognised as a national by any state. They therefore have no nationality or citizenship (terms used interchangeably in Staff this issue) and are unprotected by national legislation, leaving them vulnerable in ways that most of us never have to consider. The possible consequences of Marion Couldrey & Maurice Herson (Editors) statelessness are profound and touch on all aspects of life. It may not be possible Musab Hayatli (Assistant Editor, Arabic) to work legally, own property or open a bank account. Stateless people may be Heidi El-Megrisi (Coordinator) Sharon Ellis (Assistant) ¢ȱ¢ȱȱ¡ȱȱȱǯȱ¢ȱȱĞȱȱĴȱȱĴȱ ȱȱ¢ǰȱ¢ȱȱȱȱĴȱȱȱ¢ȱȱȱȱȱ Forced Migration Review register births and deaths. Stateless people can neither vote nor access the national justice system. Refugee Studies Centre Oxford Department of International As we are reminded by Mark Manly and Santhosh Persaud in their article in this Development, University of Oxford, ǰȱȱĞȱȱȱȱȱȱȱȱȱ¢ȱȱȱȱ 0DQVÀHOG5RDG2[IRUG2;7%8. Email: [email protected] possible. Lacking access to the rights, services and legal documentation available NEW Tel: +44 (0)1865 281700 to citizens, the world’s stateless populations face unique challenges and require NEW Fax: +44 (0)1865 281721 ȱȱȱȱȱȱȱȱ ȱȱęȱ Skype: fmreview instruments for their protection. We are grateful to Brad Blitz, Julia Harrington, Indira Goris, Sebastian Köhn, Mark www.fmreview.org Manly and Santhosh Persaud for their advice and support. We would also like to Disclaimer thank those agencies who generously provided funding for this particular issue: the US Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM); 2SLQLRQVLQ)05GRQRWQHFHVVDULO\UHÁHFW the Open Society Justice Initiative; the European Union; the Statelessness Unit of the views of the Editors, the Refugee UNHCR’s Division of International Protection Services; and UNHCR’s Studies Centre or the University of Oxford. ȱǯȱȱȱȱȱȱĴDZȦȦ ǯ ǯȦǯ 7KLVSXEOLFDWLRQZDVIXQGHGLQSDUWE\D grant from the US Department of State. Reader Survey: Our thanks to those of you who completed our Reader Survey 7KHRSLQLRQVÀQGLQJVDQGFRQFOXVLRQV and gave us your endorsement and your ideas. A summary report is on page stated herein are those of the authors and 74 and a fuller report is online at ĴDZȦȦ ǯ ǯȦŘŖŖŞ¢ǯm. GRQRWQHFHVVDULO\UHÁHFWWKRVHRIWKH86 Department of State. Our mailing list: We need to ensure that our mailing list is as up to date as Copyright possible. If your contact details have changed recently, or if you expect them to change in the near future, please would you email us ([email protected]) Any FMR print or online material may with the details. This will save possible wastage of FMR funds on postage. be freely reproduced, provided that acknowledgement is given to the source and, )05LVPRYLQJRIÀFHV In April, the Refugee Studies Centre, where where possible, the FMR URL and/or the we are based, is moving in with the rest of the Oxford Department of DUWLFOHVSHFLÀF85/:HZHOFRPHFRPPHQWV on the content and layout of FMR – please International Development. All our contact details will stay the same email, write or use the feedback form on our ¡ȱȱȱȱȱ¡ȱȱ ȱ ȱȱȱƸŚŚȱǻŖǼŗŞŜśȱ 281700 (tel) 281721 (fax). homepage. ȱȱƸŚŚȱǻŖǼŗŞŜśȱ If you plan to visit us, our Ĝȱȱȱ ȱȱȱȱȱȱȱǻȱǼǯ Designed by With best wishes. Art24 www.art-24.co.uk Printed by Marion Couldrey & Maurice Herson Editors LDI Ltd www.ldiprint.co.uk ISSN 1460-9819 Forthcoming issues Front cover photo: $IWHUFRQÀUPDWLRQRIWKHLUFLWL]HQVKLS%LKDULV N ȱřřȱǻȱȱȱ ¢ȱŘŖŖşǼȱ ȱȱȱȱȱǯȱ LQ%DQJODGHVKFDQQRZKDYHKRSHRIOHDGLQJ N ȱřŚȱǻȱŘŖŖşǼȱ ȱȱȱȱǯȱȱȱȱ a normal life after decades of exclusion. articles is at ĴDZȦȦ ǯ ǯȦȬȦ. Deadline 81+&5*0%$NDVK ȱȱȱȱȱŘŖȱ ¢ȱǻȱȱ¡ȱǼǯȱ N ȱřśȱǻȱŘŖŗŖǼȱ ȱȱȱ¢ȱȱǯ ȱĴDZȦȦ ǯ ǯȦǯȱȱǯȱ ȱȱȱȱȱ ȱȱęȱȱȱ the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way ȱȱȱĚȱȱĜȱȱȱȱȱǯ FMR 32 contents From the editors 2 Remember the forgotten, protect the unprotected Gábor Gyulai 48 Statelessness Statelessness and the right to citizenship Matthew J Gibney 50 Statelessness: what it is and why it matters ,QGLUD*RULV-XOLD+DUULQJWRQDQG6HEDVWLDQ.|KQ 4 General articles UNHCR and responses to statelessness Mark Manly and Santhosh Persaud 7 Mini-feature: North Arakan: an open prison for the Rohingya in Burma Refugee status determination by Chris Lewa 11 UNHCR and individual refugee status determination Richard Stainsby 52 We have no soil under our feet .ULVW\&UDEWUHH 14 Refugee status determination: three challenges Martin Jones 53 Ethiopia-Eritrea: statelessness and state succession .DWKHULQH6RXWKZLFN 15 Refugee status determination in southern Africa Michael S Gallagher 55 Am I stateless because I am a nomad? Ekuru Aukot 18 Refugee protection in Turkey Rachel Levitan 56 Kenyan Nubians: standing up to statelessness Adam Hussein Adam 19 An institutional gap for disaster IDPs The Universal Birth Registration campaign Roberta Cohen 58 Simon Heap and Claire Cody 20 Unmet refugee needs: Colombian refugees in Ecuador Contesting discrimination and statelessness Marie-Hélène Verney 60 in the Dominican Republic %ULGJHW:RRGLQJ 23 Europe-Africa cooperation in Mali Louis Michel 62 Advocacy campaigns and policy development %UDG%OLW] 25 Towards an EU-wide regularisation scheme Alexandra Strang 63 Reducing de facto statelessness in Nepal 3DXO:KLWH 28 Return and re-admission in states’ migration policies Jean-Pierre Cassarino 65 The end of Bihari statelessness .KDOLG+XVVDLQ 30 ,UDQPLJUDQWVPXJJOLQJDQGWUDIÀFNLQJLQSHUVRQV Nasim Sadat Hosseini-Divkolaye 66 Childhood statelessness 0DXUHHQ/\QFKDQG0HODQLH7HII 31 Regular contributors Stateless persons from Thailand in Japan &KLH.RPDLDQG)XPLH$]XNL]DZD 33 RAISE: Reproductive health-care provision in emergencies: preventing needless suffering Combatting statelessness: a government perspective Maaike van Min 68 1LFROH*UHHQDQG7RGG3LHUFH 34 UNHCR: On the money No place to go: statelessness in Israel 9LFN\7HQQDQWDQG)UDQ]LVND7URHJHU 70 Oded Feller 35 Brookings-Bern: Internal displacement and The lost tribes of Arabia peacebuilding in Colombia Abbas Shiblak 37 (OL]DEHWK)HUULV 71 Nowhere people NRC: One last chance for Colombia’s victims Greg Constantine 40 Jacob Rothing and Richard Skretteberg 72 The legal limbo of detention IDMC: Stateless former farm workers in Zimbabwe .DWKHULQH3HUNVDQG-DUODWK&OLIIRUG 42 .DWLQND5LGGHUERV 73 Displaced Kosovo Roma and property rights -RVH0DULD$UUDL]DDQG/LQGDgKPDQ 43 FMR Reader Survey 2008 results 74 Stateless Roma in Macedonia /HWWHUIURPWKHÀHOG 76 Joanne van Selm 46 4 STATELESSNESS FMR32 Statelessness: what it is and why it matters ,QGLUD*RULV-XOLD+DUULQJWRQDQG6HEDVWLDQ.|KQ Since the Second World War, a right to nationality – though stateless. Typically, because they GLIÀFXOWWRGHÀQHDQGUDUHO\HQIRUFHG²KDVHPHUJHGXQGHU ȱȱȱęȱȱ international law. to prove their citizenship, they are ineligible to vote and participate in For many of us, citizenship only nationality or, despite documentation, political processes, unable to obtain ¢ȱĴȱ ȱ ȱȱ are denied access to many human travel documents and unable to abroad, when the Olympic Games rights that other citizens enjoy. These access a range of government services are on, or when we vote in national people may be de facto stateless – that and employment. In the European elections. We do not think about is, stateless in practice, if not in law – Union (EU), for example, stateless our citizenship on a daily basis. For or cannot rely on the state of which ǰȱȱȱȬ£ǰȱ ǰȱ£ȱȱȱȬȱ they are citizens for protection. typically are not able to vote and ǰȱȱĞȱȱǯȱȱ may be barred from certain public recognition of nationalityŗ serves as a Although individuals who have legal sector jobs. In some EU states, large key to a host of other rights, such as citizenship and its accompanying numbers of stateless people – such education, health care, employment, rights may take both for granted, as Slovenia’s ‘erased citizens’Ř – are and equality before the law, people what they enjoy is one extreme of systematically denied access to both without citizenship – those who ȱȱ ȱǰȱěȱ health care and education on a par are ‘stateless’ – are some of the citizenship and de jure statelessness, with citizens. In Malaysia, stateless most vulnerable in the world. in which individuals have neither children in Selangor and Sabah are ȱ£ȱȱ¢ȱĴȱ frequently denied access to basic The inclusion of the right to rights. In between these extremes education. In Niger, more than a ¢ȱȱȱŗśȱȱȱ are millions of de facto stateless hundred thousand Mahamid Arabs3 Universal Declaration of Human ȱȱěȱǯȱ have had the threat of mass expulsion Rights, like the UDHR as a whole, hanging over them for years. was motivated by the impulse to Statelessness may result from various ȱȱȱȱĴȱ circumstances. States may simply Most of