Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1494132
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 MARCH 2023 NEWS Dizziness, headache, nausea and muscle aches, together with the scorching agony of sciatica, Mark at times ques- tioned his decision to embark on this arduous trek. "I was missing my wife and my son. I wished I could cuddle my dog. I was weeping for the last two hours of the trip," he said. Many people were drawn to this voyage because of the awareness it raised, but it was the Maltese flag that drew the most attention. The white and red flag fluttering against a background of ice-covered mountains inevitably causes shivers for islanders unaccus- tomed to such environments. The Everest trip was some- what of a spiritual journey for a man who has made it a mission to clean up land and sea. In summer, Mark regularly travels by boat and a cooler full of beer for energy to clean up the seas. Throughout the win- ter, he travels with his truck and spreads awareness with his team. Mark's journey is on Facebook page Coast is Clear Despite several clean-up efforts over the years, the Everest Summiteers Association believes that the Earth's highest peak is coated in around 30 tonnes of garbage. Mark's cleaning party gathered some 25 big bags, equivalent to 60kg of trash. However, they only cleaned the base camp, sitting at a height of 5,364m NICOLE MEILAK A total of 171 people in Malta are stateless, and almost half of them are under the age of 10, according to the 2021 Census results. Of these, 48% are under the age of 10 and 25% are aged 20-29. A stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law, the United Nations' refugee agency says. The absolute majority of stateless people in Malta are men, with 104 men and 67 women identified as stateless. 50 of them are of a Caucasian background – 26 men and 24 women. There are 24 stateless people who are of Asian background, split into 14 men and 10 women. Another 40 stateless people are of Arab racial origin, in equal gender balance. The gender imbalance is most pro- nounced in the category of stateless peo- ple of African origin, where 40 out of 48 stateless people are men. There are also five stateless people of hispanic or latino origin. Four of these are women, with only one man identified as stateless and of hispanic or latino origin. Another four stateless people are report- ed to identify with more than one racial origin. From this category, three are men and one is a woman. Neil Falzon, Director of Aditus Foun- dation, noted with MaltaToday that the 2021 questionnaire asked persons if they had a Maltese or foreign citizenship, but did not outright ask if someone is state- less. "We assume that persons answering 'no' to both questions would be listed as stateless," he said. "Being stateless may be clear and appar- ent, as for example in the case of Roma or Rohingya persons. Yet it may also be hidden and unknown, explained by a Syr- ian single mother's inability to pass on her citizenship to her children." He added that it is not up to the Nation- al Statistics Office to verify the replies in the census, as these are declarations of re- spondents to the best of their knowledge. "Just as NSO has not verified a person's claim that they do not have any citizen- ship, it has also not verified all other re- plies stating that, 'Yes, I have Maltese citizenship', or 'Yes, I have a foreign cit- izenship'". Falzon continued that determining whether someone is stateless is a com- plex process that involves researching a person's history and relationships with various countries, such as place of birth, place of residence, and marriage. "Coun- tries that have committed to taking this matter seriously introduced formal pro- cedures to identify statelessness, proce- dures leading to an official declaration of statelessness with consequential rights. We are waiting for Malta to live up to the commitment it expressed internationally in 2019. Until then, Malta's stateless pop- ulation will remain unidentified, invisible and ignored." Back in 2021, Malta was urged to fulfil its international obligations to establish a formal procedure that determines when asylum seekers are "stateless" – meaning a person who is not considered as a na- tional by any State under the operation of its law. In 2019 Malta acceded to the 1954 Con- vention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, yet to data Malta has not tak- en the legislative or administrative steps necessary to fulfil its new Convention ob- ligations. As a result of this omission, stateless persons in Malta remain unidentified and vulnerable to violations of their funda- mental human rights. Examples include the rights to education, employment, freedom from discrimination, housing, personal liberty, family and private life. Without a formal procedure to deter- mine statelessness, Malta is unable to gain the necessary insights into the nature and size of its stateless population. Chris Nash, Director and co-founder of the European Network on Statelessness, told MaltaToday that there are over half a million people in Europe who are state- less. Some of were stateless before coming to Europe and others became stateless as part of their migratory journey to Europe. He explained that it is usually hard to identify the number of people in Malta who are stateless since there is no govern- ment procedure to identify statelessness. "In terms of the adults who are stateless, it is likely they were stateless before com- ing to Malta. Regarding the children, they likely just could not access citizenship once in Malta due to a lack of relevant safeguards in Maltese nationality laws," he said. Nash added that there is a provision at law that allows children to achieve citi- zenship through naturalisation once they reach 18 years of age, but this provision has never been applied in Malta, "possibly because there is no procedure to identify statelessness". There are also ways by which the chil- dren of refugees can acquire their par- ents' citizenship, but this process could be hindered if the children or parents are unable to an embassy or consulate to for- malise the citizenship. Apart from this, approximately 20 coun- tries do not allow women to pass on their nationality to their children on an equal basis with men. Such countries include, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and several others. On the situation in Malta, Nash suspects that many of the stateless children were born to parents who are refugees or mi- grants, or parents who were stateless, or mothers that could not pass down their nationality to their children. In some cases, the lack of a birth certifi- cate also inhibits children from acquiring legal citizenship. nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt Over 170 in Malta stateless, majority children under 10 There are 171 people in Malta without a legal nationality status – 48% of them are children Stateless persons in Malta remain unidentified and vulnerable to violations of their fundamental human rights