The Ademaj family in their home in the Balkans' largest refugee camp, Konik 1, home to 2,000 Roma. ; Petrit Ademaj, 52, and his family live on the outskirts of Montenegro’s capital Podgorica in the Konik 1 camp. He fled the war in Kosovo in 1999 and has been living here ever since. He is the sole provider for his wife and five children. Born at home in Kosovo, he was abandoned by his parents as a child. All of his children have been entered in Montenegro’s birth register, but are unable to obtain citizenship because their mother and father do not possess any documents of identification. Despite several visits by caseworkers from the Kosovo Ministry of Interior’s mobile team to the Ademaj family, no solution for the children has been found so far. Like 10 million people worldwide, they are living with the limbo of statelessness.
© The Ademaj family in their home in the Balkans' largest refugee camp, Konik 1, home to 2,000 Roma. ; Petrit Ademaj, 52, and his family live on the outskirts of Montenegro’s capital Podgorica in the Konik 1 camp. He fled the war in Kosovo in 1999 and has been living here ever since. He is the sole provider for his wife and five children. Born at home in Kosovo, he was abandoned by his parents as a child. All of his children have been entered in Montenegro’s birth register, but are unable to obtain citizenship because their mother and father do not possess any documents of identification. Despite several visits by caseworkers from the Kosovo Ministry of Interior’s mobile team to the Ademaj family, no solution for the children has been found so far. Like 10 million people worldwide, they are living with the limbo of statelessness.
COVID-19 is worsening the plight of millions of stateless people worldwide, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi warned today.
Marking the sixth anniversary of UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign, aimed at ending statelessness by 2024, Grandi called on world leaders to include and protect stateless populations and make bold and swift moves to eradicate statelessness.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown more than ever the need for inclusion and the urgency to resolve statelessness. A pandemic doesn’t discriminate between citizens and non-citizens. It is not in any state’s, society’s or community’s interest for people to be left stateless and living on the margins of society,’ Grandi said.
“We must redouble efforts to resolve this affront to humanity in the 21st century.”
Lacking important legal rights and often unable to access essential services, many stateless people are politically and economically marginalized, discriminated against and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. In many countries, stateless people, including stateless refugees, live in sub-standard and inadequate sanitary conditions which can increase the risk of disease.
Though global data is hard to obtain as stateless populations are not always accounted for or included in national censuses, some 4.2 million stateless people are reported by UNHCR in 76 countries. The actual number is believed, however, to be substantially higher.
While significant progress has been made in reducing statelessness worldwide since the launch of the campaign in November 2014, the coronavirus pandemic has now exacerbated many of the difficulties and injustices that stateless people face.
“Without citizenship, many stateless people do not have access to or are not included in essential public health services and social safety nets. They have been left extremely vulnerable in the face of this pandemic,” said Grandi.
Some countries have, however, shown leadership by including stateless people in their response to COVID-19, ensuring they have access to testing and treatment, food, clothing and masks. Some governments have made birth registration and other forms of civil documentation an essential service, maintaining operations despite the pandemic, helping to prevent new cases of statelessness arising.
In recent years, Serbia has achieved significant progress in prevention and eradication of statelessness by introducing legal changes and consistency into the practice of competent authorities at the local level. All this contributed also to reduction of the number of persons at risk of statelessness lacking one or more personal documents including those whose birth was never registered. UNHCR is currently supporting a third survey that should give a better insight into the number of persons at risk of statelessness in Serbia. The survey should also provide information related to practical implementation of the effective legislation and the reasons for emergence of new cases of persons at risk of becoming stateless. In order to combat this negative phenomenon, particularly its effect on the new-born children, UNHCR Serbia signed – in 2019 – a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of State Administration and Local Government and the Ombudsman. Building on the cooperation that has rendered excellent results thus far and has constituted a best practice example, UNHCR and the Serbian authorities, an independent State authority and its civil society partners continue pursuing the activities promoted by #IBelong campaign.
“Statelessness is an easily resolvable and preventable issue – a matter of political will to change a person’s status and life – yet the consequences of inaction especially during the middle of a pandemic can be life-threatening,” said Grandi.
“To protect and save lives, we urge governments to resolve statelessness and make sure that no one is left behind.”
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