More than half a million people in Europe are estimated to be stateless – they have limited access to basic rights and services such as education and healthcare and can face life-long discrimination.
A stateless couple with their baby in Skopje, Macedonia. © UNHCR/Roger Arnold
GENEVA, 14 February 2019 – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and UNICEF, the UN Children’s Agency, are calling on States and regional organisations to take urgent action to ensure no child is born, or remains, stateless in Europe.
While there are no precise figures on the total numbers of stateless children, more than half a million people in Europe are estimated to be stateless.
As the overall number of asylum-seeking children in Europe has grown since 2010, with peaks in 2015 and 2016, so has the number of children identified as ‘stateless’. In 2017 some 2,100 children were registered as ‘stateless’, which represented a four-fold increase compared to 2010.
Children without a nationality have limited access to basic rights and services such as education and healthcare and can face life-long discrimination. Lack of official documents can put children at greater risk of experiencing violence, abuse and trafficking, and place them and their families at risk of arrest and detention.
“Life is stacked against a stateless child right from the start. Like all of us, they can dream, and they can hope, but the legal obstacles they face often mean their dreams are dashed before they are adults, and their potential squandered,” said Pascale Moreau, UNHCR’s Director of the Bureau for Europe.
Three groups of children are particularly affected:
“Every child has the right to a name and a nationality,” said Afshan Khan, UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, and Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Response in Europe. “Governments not only have a responsibility to adopt safeguards that prevent a child from being born stateless, but to provide legal-aid and support to ensure every stateless child realizes their right to citizenship.”
To better address child statelessness in Europe, UNICEF and UNHCR are proposing a series of low-cost, effective and sustainable solutions, including:
While birth registration rates are high in Europe, information campaigns targeting families most at risk of statelessness would help identify unregistered children and support families through registration procedures.
Achieving legal identity for all through birth registration, is one of the goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. UNICEF works to ensure all children are registered at birth, while UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign aims to end statelessness, which affects millions of people worldwide, by 2024.
Note to editors:
Access UNICEF-UNHCR’s Ending Childhood Statelessness in Europe
In 2016 UNICEF and UNHCR launched the Coalition on Every Child’s Right to a Nationality.
About UNHCR
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, leads international action to protect people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance like shelter, food and water, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home where they can build a better future. We also work to ensure that stateless people are granted a nationality.
For more information about UNHCR, visit: www.unhcr.org
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About UNICEF
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.
For more information about UNICEF and its work for children, visit www.unicef.org/eca
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