About the webinar
The webinar will launch our research report - ‘Situation assessment of statelessness, health, and COVID-19 in Europe’ - presenting the key findings from a regional stakeholder survey, interviews and focus groups with European health and statelessness experts, and focus groups with stateless people in five countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, and the Netherlands). We will also launch a policy briefing to accompany the report, setting out our key recommendations for European policymakers, international organisations, donors, and other actors working on health rights, public health policy, migrant and refugee rights, and minority rights, as well as statelessness.
After the presentation of the research and recommendations, a panel of invited experts will then offer their reflections on what the trends identified mean for those working on global health and public health policy, and how we can better work together to ensure stateless people are not left behind in our complex and challenging times.
About the issue
A stateless person is someone who has no nationality, someone who is not recognised as a national by any State. Statelessness affects over half a million people in Europe – both people on the move and those who have lived in the same place for generations – denying many their fundamental rights, including the Right to Health. The causes of statelessness worldwide include State succession, gaps in nationality laws, discrimination, displacement, and nationality stripping.
Despite the extent of the problem, statelessness and stateless people are often invisible in public policy responses as data on the size and demographics of stateless populations around the world is severely lacking. Moreover, many States lack robust mechanisms to identify and determine who is stateless on their territory, often leaving stateless people without any route to a residence permit, or to prove or acquire a nationality. Our research reveals how COVID-19 has amplified pre-existing barriers to accessing healthcare and information, and exacerbated discrimination, social exclusion, and deprivation experienced by many stateless people in Europe. Social, structural, and environmental determinants of health have worsened, as many stateless people have lost their already fragile sources of income and have been unable to access State aid and healthcare.
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