SDP Blog Series - Stateless people in Romania: still waiting for recognition and rights

Statelessness past and present in Romania

During the communist era in Romania, the idea of not having citizenship was largely seen as something negative. Some Romanians - including well-known figures such as George Enescu, Mircea Eliade, and Emil Cioran - were effectively deprived of their nationality during this time. Although their nationality was never restored, they were later acknowledged as part of the national heritage and they and others like them were able to reacquire Romanian citizenship through a simplified route.

This is not the case today for other stateless populations in Romania. Without a dedicated statelessness determination procedure (SDP), identifying people without a nationality living in Romania is very difficult. Statelessness is treated as an abstract concept, inconsistently determined in practice, with no clear standards or procedural rights for people left in limbo. Urgent legislative steps are needed to improve data, recognition and protection of stateless people in Romania today, and to ensure stakeholders have a better understanding of statelessness and practical tools for identification, particularly in a migration context.

The status quo: commitments, but little action

Romania has been party to the two main UN Conventions dealing with statelessness for over 20 years, but it maintains reservations to the 1954 Convention and has still not established a procedure to give effect to the rights it establishes. Getting an accurate picture of the stateless population in the country is also difficult as the data is limited: without identification, statistics are unreliable. Fewer than 300 stateless people are recorded as living in Romania, about half of whom are refugees. Introducing an SDP would not necessarily lead to a significant increase in the number of stateless people in Romania, as has been proven in neighbouring countries. It would merely help clarify the nationality status of people already in Romania and resolve their legal situation – including where they have been assigned an imputed nationality but are in fact stateless.

Steps have already been taken towards this goal. The Ministry of Interior has noted since 2010 that legislation should be adopted to establish an SDP, but the adoption of a formal procedure is still pending. In the absence of a legal framework establishing an SDP, some authorities have been determining statelessness within asylum procedures, or as part of assessing barriers to return. But the main purpose of these procedures is not to determine statelessness, and they don’t lead to a protection status for stateless people in Romania.

The impact on stateless people

Together with ENS, JRS Romania has been campaigning and documenting the issue of statelessness in the country for years. We know there are stateless people with a migratory background living on the territory. Children remain among the most vulnerable, and language and communication barriers make it harder for people to navigate technical legal concepts related to statelessness and nationality problems. This often makes an already complex situation even more difficult to address.

Sometimes, resolving nationality problems is only one piece of the jigsaw of case resolution. In 2014, JRS represented Richard, a young person separated from his family who was born in the borderlands between Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo. Richard had ‘tolerated stay’ status in Romania when he came to our attention, and was considered Angolan by the authorities, but his attempts to return voluntarily were unsuccessful because Angola refused to recognise him as a national. Because Romania does not have an SDP, there was no opportunity for him to have his statelessness recognised, and he was left in limbo for a long time without being able to acquire a residence permit in Romania. Eventually, he was forcibly removed to the DRC.

In another case we worked on, the child of Cuban parents was recognised as stateless by the Romanian authorities during asylum proceedings (based on the denial of citizenship by Cuba). He was granted subsidiary protection but never received proper documentation as a stateless person. He was mis-recorded on file as having Cuban citizenship and ended up with a different protection status from his parents, who were recognised as refugees.

These two examples point to the urgent need for clear legal pathways that allow for determination of statelessness and access to a dedicated protection status through an SDP.

New standards, new expectations

JRS Romania has long been advocating for the introduction of an SDP, improved identification of statelessness, and strengthened capacity of national authorities to address these issues. Together with ENS, we produced and maintain the Statelessness Index country profile on Romania and published a dedicated Toolkit to identify and address statelessness in Romania. We have also been actively participating a technical working group on statelessness coordinated by UNHCR to increase awareness among key stakeholders in Romania, including by analysing structural gaps and practical obstacles to establishing an SDP, and to reflect on good practice from other States (based on the Index).

At the same time, the Statelessness Index highlights that, in the absence of a dedicated SDP, authorities have been relying on asylum and return procedures to identify statelessness. Most neighbouring countries, including Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Moldova have dedicated SDPs, but in Romania competent authorities do not have an obligation to consider a claim of statelessness. Using the Index for comparison provides an opportunity to align with regional standards and learn from neighbouring practice, offering an additional tool to raise awareness about new EU requirements to identify and record indications of statelessness pending a full determination.

The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces new obligations on States with regards to statelessness: a preliminary vulnerability assessment under the Screening Regulation requires authorities to identify and record indications of statelessness, and NGOs may assist screening authorities in the vulnerability check. The Asylum Procedures Regulation introduces a requirement to register when an asylum applicant claims to be stateless, pending a determination. These new legal standards, due to be implemented from mid-June 2026, establish a clear new requirement to identify, record, and refer stateless people so as to improve and strengthen their access to rights and protection.

Conclusion

In a recent public statement, the Ministry of Interior recognised statelessness as a distinct, multidisciplinary issue and acknowledged the need for better understanding and regulation of an SDP. With EU law now requiring indications of statelessness to be identified and recorded from June 2026, Romania has an opportunity - and an urgent responsibility - to move from ad hoc and inconsistent recognition of statelessness towards a clear framework to identify and protect stateless people. Romania can draw on technical support and the experience of neighbouring countries to establish routes to protection for stateless people in line with its international obligations, and provide assistance to people who are otherwise too often left in limbo.

Interested in learning more about SDPs in Europe? 

Read our briefing on statelessness determination and protection. 

Watch our webinar exploring what needs to happen next to improve the identification and protection of stateless people in Europe. 

Visit our StatelessnessINDEX for analysis of law, policy and practice in 35 countries. 

Watch this space for more blogs from our members over the coming weeks.