Lost in limbo: Refugee crisis may create generation of stateless children, experts warn

2-MIN READ2-MIN

A man holds a baby as refugees arrive on the shore of Sykamias beach, west of the port city of Mytilini, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:09pm, 21 Sep 2015

The European refugee crisis could risk creating a new generation of stateless children unless countries close gaps in their nationality laws, experts said.

The warning came on Monday as the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) launched a campaign to stop children growing up stateless in Europe where an estimated 600,000 people have no nationality.

Stateless children are denied the basic rights most people take for granted, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. They often live in destitution without access to education and health services.

An ENS report, which analyses nationality laws in 47 European countries, says flawed laws and birth registration procedures mean thousands of children are growing up stateless across the continent.

It also highlights emerging concerns over the risk of statelessness to some children born in exile to Syrian refugees.

A refugee mother and her child, who had just arrived by train from Austria, are photographed by police for registration after their arrival in Freilassing, Germany. Photo: EPA

“Children are still being born stateless in Europe for a variety of reasons, but the current migrant crisis underlines the urgent need for European countries to reform nationality laws and birth registration procedures to ensure no child ends up stateless,” said the report’s co-author Laura van Waas.

More than 470,000 refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia have arrived in Europe this year. Around half are believed to be refugees from the Syrian war.