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History
The 1951 Geneva Convention defines a refugee as any person who:
“owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
Malta has transposed this definition into its Refugees Act of 2001.
According to the Procedural Standards for Granting And Withdrawing International Protection Regulations a refugee enjoys the following rights and entitlements:
- To remain in Malta with freedom of movement and to be granted, as soon as possible, personal documents, including a residence permit for a period of three years, which shall be renewable
- To be given a Convention Travel Document entitling him to leave and return to Malta without the need of a visa (unless he is in custody awaiting judicial proceedings for the commission of a criminal offence, or is serving a term of imprisonment)
- To have access to employment, social welfare, appropriate accommodation, integration programs, state education and training, and to receive state medical care
- Family members of a person granted refugee status, if they are in Malta at the time of the decision or if they join him in Malta, enjoy the same rights and benefits as the refugee so that family unity may be maintained.
- Persons granted the status of refugee and who are considered as vulnerable persons shall, as far as possible, be provided with adequate health care
For more information refer to the Refugees Act and relevant subsidiary legislation – LEGISLATION MALTA
Who is a ‘refugee’?
Refugees are people forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as a result of who they are, what they believe in or say, or because of armed conflict, violence or serious public disorder.
Many have been forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind their homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones. They may have suffered human rights violations, been injured in their flight, or seen family members or friends killed or attacked.
Today, there are 43.7 million refugees globally. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is mandated to protect 32 million refugees and 5.8 million other people in need of international protection. A further 6 million Palestine refugees are supported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which was set up in 1949 to care for displaced Palestinians.
Who is an ‘asylum-seeker’?
An asylum-seeker is someone who is seeking international protection. Their request for refugee status, or complementary protection status, has yet to be processed, or they may not yet have requested asylum but they intend to do so.
War, persecution and human rights violations force people to flee their homes. To escape violence or threats to their lives or freedoms, many must leave with just a few moments’ notice, carrying little more than the clothes on their backs.
When someone crosses an international border seeking safety, they often need to apply to be legally recognized as a refugee. While they seek asylum and await the outcome of their application, they are referred to as asylum-seekers and should be protected. Not all asylum-seekers will be found to be refugees, but all refugees were once asylum-seekers.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, works to protect asylum-seekers. We try to ensure that they can reach safety and have their claim for asylum heard fairly and efficiently. We advocate for their rights, including education and health care, while they await the outcome of their claim. Long term, we work to strengthen asylum systems and laws.
At the end of June 2024, there were approximately 8 million people around the world waiting for a decision on their asylum claims.
What is ‘subsidiary protection’?
Subsidiary protection is complementary to refugee status. It means that someone cannot be returned to their country of origin or habitual residence because they face a real risk of serious harm. Serious harm means (i) the death penalty or execution; (ii) torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; (iii) serious and individual threat to a civilian’s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in a situation of international or internal armed conflict.
Stateless People
Millions of people around the world are denied a nationality which can prevent them from accessing basic rights.
UNHCR is working to end statelessness.
Today, millions of people around the world are denied a nationality. As a result, they often aren’t allowed to go to school, see a doctor, get a job, open a bank account, buy a house or even get married.
Stateless people are fighting for the same basic human rights that the most of us take for granted. Often they are excluded from cradle to grave— being denied a legal identity when they are born, access to education, health care, marriage and job opportunities during their lifetime and even the dignity of an official burial and a death certificate when they die. Many pass on the curse of statelessness on to their children, who then pass it on to the next generation.
The irony is that these people find themselves stateless through no fault of their own-and in most cases their condition could be resolved through minor changes in existing laws.
UNHCR has an international mandate to prevent and reduce statelessness.
Governments establish who their nationals are. This makes them responsible for legal and policy reforms that are necessary to effectively address statelessness. But UNHCR, other agencies, regional organizations, civil society and stateless people all have roles to play in supporting their efforts.
To make a difference, we must work together. Each of the four areas of our work on statelessness – identification, prevention, reduction and protection – overlap with the expertise of other international organizations and NGOs, and we rely on the local knowledge and expertise of civil society groups, national human rights institutions, academics and legal associations. Their contribution to our work allows us to prepare and recommend the most effective solutions.
Collaboration with other UN agencies is also important. For example, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has long worked on improving birth registration and civil registries, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) can help governments design and implement national censuses, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) supports monitoring of the human rights of stateless people.
How does nationality work?
People usually acquire a nationality automatically at birth, either through their parents or the country in which they were born. Sometimes, however, a person must apply to become a national of a country.
What is statelessness?
The international legal definition of a stateless person is “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”. In simple terms, this means that a stateless person does not have a nationality of any country. Some people are born stateless, but others become stateless.
Statelessness can occur for several reasons, including discrimination against particular ethnic or religious groups, or on the basis of gender; the emergence of new States and transfers of territory between existing States; and gaps in nationality laws. Whatever the cause, statelessness has serious consequences for people in almost every country and in all regions of the world.
What are the causes of statelessness?
- Gaps in nationality laws are a major cause of statelessness. Every country has laws which establish under what circumstances someone acquires nationality or can have it withdrawn. If these laws are not carefully written and correctly applied, some people can be excluded and left stateless. An example is children who are of unknown parentage in a country where nationality is acquired based on descent from a national. Fortunately, most nationality laws recognize them as nationals of the state in which they are found.
- Another factor that can make matters complicated is when people move from the countries where they were born. A child born in a foreign country can risk becoming stateless if that country does not permit nationality based on birth alone and if the country of origin does not allow a parent to pass on nationality through family ties. Additionally, the rules setting out who can and who cannot pass on their nationality are sometimes discriminatory. The laws in 27 countries do not let women pass on their nationality, while some countries limit citizenship to people of certain races and ethnicities.
- Another important reason is the emergence of new states and changes in borders. In many cases, specific groups can be left without a nationality as a result and, even where new countries allow nationality for all, ethnic, racial and religious minorities frequently have trouble proving their link to the country. In countries where nationality is only acquired by descent from a national, statelessness will be passed on to the next generation.
- Finally, statelessness can also be caused by loss or deprivation of nationality. In some countries, citizens can lose their nationality simply from having lived outside their country for a long period of time. States can also deprive citizens of their nationality through changes in law that leave whole populations stateless, using discriminatory criteria like ethnicity or race.