Some 600,000 people in Europe today are ‘stateless’, meaning they do not have a nationality. As a result, they often have difficulties accessing basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. Stateless people are also at risk of being placed into immigration detention, sometimes unlawfully and long-term.

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London and the Green Party’s migration spokesperson, is set to deliver a keynote to a major conference on this issue in Budapest, Hungary tomorrow. The event is organised by the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) [1]. She says:

“Citizenship is something that most people take for granted, but some 10 million individuals worldwide are not recognised as a citizen of any state. It is a legal anomaly which results in many children not being able to go to school, pregnant women not having access to healthcare, and parents being unable to provide for their families.

In 2015, almost 20,000 of the 1.3 million people who applied for asylum in the EU were recorded as being stateless and a further 22,000 were of ‘unknown citizenship’. In short, more than 3% of asylum applicants in the EU face a nationality problem. Yet despite most countries in Europe frequently encountering stateless people, it’s an issue that few understand – including many of the lawmakers who should be responsible for their safety and protection.

On Friday, I will deliver a keynote to a major conference in Budapest organised by the European Network of Statelessness (ENS). The conference theme is one with which we are all becoming too familiar: immigration detention. Many EU countries, including Hungary, have ramped up their use of detention in recent years. This can be particularly detrimental for stateless people, who are trapped in limbo between rejection by Europe and the lack of any other country that recognises them as a national. This process is cruel and outdated, leaving vulnerable people in detention for lengthy periods of time [2].

A new report by ENS calls for firm action to change this [3]. It recommends that states put procedures in place to identify stateless people, so that steps can be taken to protect them. It outlines alternatives to detention, and demands access to basic rights for those awaiting determination of their status.

A growing number of my colleagues are becoming aware of these pressing issues. We will seek to address them in June, when a joint hearing of the Civil Liberties Committee and the Petitions Committee will be dedicated to the question of statelessness.”

[1] http://www.statelessness.eu/protecting-stateless-persons-from-detention

[2] http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/attachments/resources/ENS_LockeInLimbo_Detention_Agenda_online.pdf

[3] The UK does have a statelessness determination procedure, but challenges remain with regard to its content and implementation.

ENDS

Read my blog post “Europe’s stateless locked in limbo” for EURACTIV here.

The post The arbitrary detention of stateless people is cruel and outdated, says Green MEP appeared first on Jean Lambert MEP.

Jean Lambert, who has been awarded for her work on Justice and Human Rights said that by trusting such assurances the UK Government would be working to double standards and said; “The Queens speech has highlighted some important and serious questions over plans to tighten control orders of suspected foreign terrorists, deporting them to countries the UK Government has acknowledged are dangerous and we know carry out torture.

“The Human Rights Act is in place to protect and benefit everyone but with plans to implement the 90 days detention period it seems we are in danger of omitting theses laws where suspected foreign terrorists are concerned. This is simply unacceptable.”

With increasing concern over climate change Jean Lambert, who is Green MEP for London, welcomed the Queen’s focus on the subject but said that the proposals set out weren’t enough to make the difference needed.  Jean commented; “Although the UK is now making progress to tackle climate change we do need to increase targets dramatically and reduce emissions to 90% below the 1990 base line by 2030.  Margaret Thatcher spoke of climate change as a major challenge yet we have failed to make a significant difference in that time.  In order to make up for those lost years we have no choice but to work to crucial targets.”

ENDS

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