Sierra Leone News: 60% of stateless population are children- UNHCR Officer-in-Charge

URL: http://awoko.org/2016/02/24/sierra-leone-news-60-of-stateless-population-are-children-unhcr-officer-in-charge/

awoko.org, 24 Feb 2016

A day to the commemoration of the 1st anniversary of the Abidjan Declaration to Eradicate Statelessness by 2024, the Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Moijama Siafa disclosed that about 60% of stateless population are children. She made this statement during a press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday 23rd February 2016. She said that this is as a result of war. “Many children,” she explained, “are abandoned during this time and we find it difficult to trace their background”. Citing the 1954 convention relating to the status of statelessness, which states that ‘a stateless person is someone who is not recognised by any state under the operation of its laws’, Madam Siafa noted that statelessness is a global problem which affects every continent in the world. She went on to say that global statistics shows that “there are about ten million stateless people of which close to a million are found in West Africa”, noting that in this region, the main group at risk of statelessness include abandoned children, nomadic population, undocumented migrant, and populations residing in border and disputed areas. She however said that they as an organisation are yet to undertake an exercise to come up with information of stateless persons in Sierra Leone. While he was making a statement on the issue of statelessness, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Joseph B. Dauda, said a stateless person is not considered a citizen in any country; “it means according to the law, they are not in existence”. He stated that as a way of eradicating statelessness in the region, heads of the Economic Community of West Africa States came together in February last year to develop the Abidjan Declaration of Ministers of ECOWAS Member States on Eradication of Statelessness. He furthered that since that time they as a nation have taken the following steps: appointment of focal person, incorporation of the chapter of citizenship in the proposed constitution, intensification of civil registration reforms, among others. As the anniversary commences tomorrow, the Minister affirmed the government’s continued work with the UNHCR and other stakeholders to ensure that statelessness is eradicated. By Edna Smalle