Kafkaesque case sees man unable to stay in UK, but with no home country to return to

A man who has been stateless for 31 years has been denied protection in the UK after the Home Office refused to accept he was originally from Palestine, despite advising him to return there on two occasions.

Mohammed Al-Mustafa, 36, left Palestine at the age of five with his parents after his brother was killed. They did not have identity documents and he has lived without legal status in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Italy and France before arriving in the UK in 2010. His parents have both since died.



Al-Mustafa claimed asylum in the UK in 2010. The Home Office rejected the claim, noting his nationality as “Palestinian Authority” and saying he would not be personally at risk if he returned.

He tried to return to Palestine twice, but could not because he had no papers. He then claimed he was stateless in June 2016. But last year his claim was rejected on the grounds that the Home Office did not believe he was Palestinian.

Cynthia Orchard, legal policy officer for Asylum Aid, said: “Generally, if someone is accepted as being from Palestine and they haven’t been granted refugee status elsewhere they should be recognised and granted as a stateless person in the UK, because the UK doesn’t recognise Palestine as a state.”

Profile Statelessness Show Hide What is statelessness? A stateless person is someone who is not recognised as a citizen of any country. This often means they cannot attend school, legally work, vote, or access legal protections. How many stateless people are there? UNHCR estimates there are more than 10 million stateless people around the world. Where do stateless people come from? Stateless people come from a range of places, including Palestine, Kuwait, Cote d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Western Sahara, and the former Soviet Union. How do you become stateless? Statelessness is caused by a range of things, including gaps in nationality laws. For example, in countries where citizenship is passed on by descent, a child of unknown parentage will not be given citizenship unless there is a law protecting them. Discrimination based on gender, ethnic, racial and religious grounds means some people are not recognised by their state or unable to pass on their citizenship to their children. Statelessness can also occur when new states emerge or countries change borders, or if a child moves from their country of birth soon after they are born. What does Britain do to protect stateless people? In 2013, the UK established a procedure to consider statelessness claims. If someone is found to be stateless, they will be granted a protection visa for two and a half years, after which they can apply again for another visa. How many people has the UK granted statelessness to? It's hard to say, because the Home Office does not publish statistics about statelessness claims, but it's believed it grants protection to as few as 5% of applicants. According to data provided by the Home Office for a report in 2016, by the end of March 2016, only 47.4% of applications that had been received since April 2013 had been decided, meaning some people were still waiting for a decision on their claim for three years. Of the 754 decisions made by April 2016, only 39 (5.2%) were grants of protection. This compares with between 30-40% of initial decisions being grants in asylum cases.

The refusal letter said some of Al-Mustafa’s answers to questions posed by the Home Office cast “serious doubts on [his] claim to be of Palestinian ethnicity”, including that he could not accurately draw the Palestinian flag.

Among the questions they claimed he had not answered satisfactorily during his statelessness interview was one about the Palestinian anthem, which was only adopted in Palestine in 1996, nine years after he left with his parents.

“I know the name of the anthem is al Fida’i, but I didn’t memorise the words and I told them, it’s not about words. We can’t get the country back because of the words,” said Al-Mustafa.

The Home Office also pointed to Al-Mustafa’s answer to a question about whether Palestine had a particular national dish or food. Al-Mustafa replied: “I haven’t lived in Palestine to know these things. There’s a couple, mutabbal, kibbeh and many other things.”

The refusal letter said: “The Home Office has conducted research into what food common [sic] around the Gaza strip. You failed to name any.”

Al-Mustafa’s solicitor, Michael Ferguson, from the charity the Passage, called the Home Office’s decision “brutal and illogical”.

“All through the asylum process, which started in 2010, they’ve never questioned that he’s from Palestine – they’ve tried to send him back to Palestine themselves,” Ferguson said. “I just think to pick out these small things, it’s shameful really.”

Al-Mustafa has twice attempted to return to Palestine – in 2010 and 2015 – after the Home Office advised him to apply for the Assisted Voluntary Returns programme (AVR).

In 2010 he was told that without a Palestinian passport and ID card return was not possible. The Palestinian General Delegates Office in London has since confirmed they cannot issue these documents to him.

In 2015 the organisation running the AVR programme told Al-Mustafa they were “unable to assist with the logistics of AVRs to Palestine” and could offer him no further information or advice.

Without legal status in the UK or the possibility of returning to Palestine, Al-Mustafa has slept rough, on and off for three years, on the streets, in a police station and in a churchyard.

The Home Office introduced a procedure for determining statelessness claims in 2013 to provide protection to people who are not recognised as citizens of any country. It is believed that just 5% of cases are granted, compared with 30 to 40% of regular asylum cases.

“The burden of proof is meant to be on the balance of probabilities,” said Ferguson. “So picking out these things like not the most popular food, didn’t know the national anthem, for a child who left there at age five ... it’s not enough to refuse someone.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An excerpt from the Home Office’s refusal letter of Mohammed Al-Mustafa’s statelessness claim.

The refusal letter said the Home Office believed Al-Mustafa was using “deception in order to try and obtain leave” – a claim that surprised Ferguson.

“It’s the enormity of the lie, if it’s a lie,” said Ferguson. “That he’s lied the whole way through, that he’s made false applications to return to Gaza. Why would he want to go and live in Gaza if he’s not even from there?”

Al-Mustafa’s case is currently being considered under the Home Office’s administrative review process. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do not routinely comment on individual cases.”

Al-Mustafa is currently living with Joanne MacInnes, an activist and actor, and her daughters in London. He was placed there through the Room for Refugees programme when he was sleeping rough after his asylum claim was refused and his asylum support cut off.

“When I met Jo I found a nice place and some warmth here and I started to feel that there is hope,” said Al-Mustafa. “And when Jo broke the news to me... I lost all the hope. Something inside me – I can’t describe it. It’s a terrible thing to lose hope.”

'It's like Airbnb for refugees': UK hosts and their guests – in pictures Read more

“Mohammed has never been legal in any country since he left Gaza,” said MacInnes. “He’s always been in this awful position where he’s waiting for his life to start and just trapped by this idea that a human being is illegal.”

“I feel we are treated worse than animals by the Home Office,” said Al-Mustafa. “Sometimes I sit down on my own and cry. Life is very hard. It’s unimaginable. What can I do?”

Emotional, he broke into English. “Give me country,” he said. “Give me country.”