As part of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) global #IBELONG Campaign to end statelessness in the world by 2024, the UNHCR Regional Representation for South Eastern Europe has produced a brochure about the situation of persons at risk of becoming stateless in this region.
Today, more than ten million people across the world, including some 5,000 in South Eastern Europe, are told they don’t belong ANYWHERE. They are called ‘stateless’. They are denied a nationality. And with it, they are denied their basic rights. Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care, or legal employment. It can mean a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects, or hope. Statelessness is inhumane.
The aim of this publication is to document the important progress achieved since the start of the #IBELONG campaign in 2014 by the national actors in the region – authorities, civil society and the affected communities themselves – in helping thousands of people at risk of statelessness to come out of the cruel zone of being ‘legally invisible.’ At the same time, it shall remind us that there is still work to be done, by 2024, to resolve statelessness and prevent that thousands more are at risk of becoming stateless, and instead can continue with their lives in certainty and dignity.
Download the report
(English, PDF, Size 2.1Mb)
Read the full article