When: Thu 27 April, 12:00-12:45 UK time

This webinar will address 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 will present the importance of considering statelessness when assessing asylum claims, tools for recognising, recording and referring cases of statelessness, and offer 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.

Who is this 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

Speakers 

Patrícia Cabral

European Network on Statelessness (ENS)

Claudia Bonamini
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)

Many frontline refugee practitioners have limited awareness of statelessness or how to identify or adequately assist stateless persons with issues relating to lack of nationality.

The Stateless Journeys campaign and website was launched by ENS in late 2022, to build awareness around how statelessness plays out in refugee communities. We have launched eight short briefings relating to various aspects of (risk of) statelessness, designed to increase awareness particularly amongst frontline practitioners on how to respond adequately.

We are running a series of four short webinars from March to May 2023 that will offer an introduction to refugee practitioners on issues covered in the briefing tools and build awareness around addressing statelessness.