On Thursday 27 April, we held the second event in our #StatelessJourneys webinar series on Identifying and Addressing Statelessness in the Refugee Context. The webinar will address how frontline refugee responders can improve the identification and determination of statelessness in refugee reception and refugee status determination procedures.
Webinar overview
This webinar addressed how frontline refugee responders can improve the identification and determination of statelessness in refugee reception and refugee status determination procedures. Building on lessons from the first webinar which focused on asylum registration and screening, it presented the importance of considering statelessness when assessing asylum claims, tools for recognising, recording and referring cases of statelessness, and offered an introduction to what needs to change at the policy and operational level.
Failure to address statelessness in the asylum context can put people at risk and cause serious human rights violations. Stateless refugees whose statelessness has not been addressed may be required to stay in reception centres for prolonged periods due to uncertainty about their nationality, subject to refoulement or unlawfully detained for the purposes of removal, and their children may be denied the right to a nationality.
Lack of nationality may be the reason that a stateless person has left their country of origin and fears persecution, which should therefore be assessed as part of an asylum claim. Other stateless people may be among those displaced by more generalised conflict. Either way, statelessness should be properly determined through a dedicated statelessness determination procedure (SDP) or as part of a refugee status determination procedure.
A lack of standardised procedures for identifying statelessness throughout the asylum system can negatively impact refugee status determination and/or result in other harmful impacts for stateless people.
Agenda
13:00-13:05 Welcome
13:05-13:20 Presentation by PatrÃcia Cabral, European Network on Statelessness
ENS will present its briefing on refugee reception and status determination
13:20-13:35 Presentation by Claudia Bonamini, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)
An overview of the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service across Europe and how it is improving the identification and protection of stateless refugees.
13:35-13:45 Q&A & closing remarks
Who is the webinar aimed at?
This webinar is aimed at anyone working within the refugee or asylum context, including government and civil society practitioners, legal advisors, and community representatives. It will be particularly relevant for those involved in decision-making or provision of advice in refugee status determination procedures.
