Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/788859
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2017 16 News JURGEN BALZAN KAFIL, a 30-year-old refugee born to Rohingya Muslims, who have been described as the most perse- cuted people in the world, has all but given up on becoming Maltese. "I know there is no prospect for citizenship here. I know many peo- ple who have been here for a very long time and still they don't have Maltese citizenship," Kafil says. His story is one of those docu- mented in the 2014 UN Refugee Agency's (UNHCR) Mapping Statelessness in Malta report, which was recently presented to MPs in Valletta. Former MPs are calling on jus- tice minister Owen Bonnici to "seriously consider granting Mal- tese citizenship to stateless minors born in Malta." In a resolution tabled on their behalf in Parlia- ment by the Speaker last month, the assembly of former MPs called on Bonnici to use his discretion- ary powers to grant citizenship to stateless children born in Malta "under such terms, requirements and conditions as he may deem fit, including those conditions cur- rently applicable to stateless adults born in Malta." Maltese citizenship law leaves open the possibility for children to be born stateless in Malta. Most such cases involve parents who are non-nationals and either stateless themselves or unable to confer their citizenship. The UN agency has long called on Malta to adjust its domestic legislation to ensure that children born stateless in Malta are granted citizenship automatically at birth, in line with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UNHCR has also recom- mended that "in order to avoid exposing children to the risk of statelessness, Malta should ensure that birth registration is carried out for all children born in Malta, regardless of the migrant status of the parents or their lack of docu- mentation. In its latest call to have Malta sign the two Statelessness Conven- tions, namely the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the UNHCR delivered an informa- tion package on statelessness to parliament's Speaker, Anglu Far- rugia, and MPs. Malta is one of only four EU countries which are yet to sign any of the statelessness conven- tions. The UNHCR wants Malta to become a party to these conven- tions in order to protect stateless persons, and prevent and reduce statelessness. It also recommended that Malta should put in place a statelessness determination procedure which would ensure the identification of such persons in the country. "Mal- ta should ensure the basic rights of stateless persons found within the country." No data on stateless people in Malta The UNHCR is also calling on the National Statistics Office and other relevant authorities to col- lect accurate data about state- less people living in Malta. Some 400,000 stateless persons are found in the EU and research shows that stateless persons are also found in Malta, albeit not in large numbers. There is no data on how many stateless people currently live in Malta but according to the EUDO Observatory on Citizenship, 94 stateless persons obtained citizen- ship in Malta between 1991 and 2008. The persons who are or may be stateless in Malta – whether born in Malta or who arrived in Malta later in life – who have been iden- tified by the UNHCR, include Kurds (especially those from Tur- key and Syria); Palestinians; Sovi- ets; Southern Africans; Rohingyas; Crimean Tatars and children of mixed Ethiopian/Eritrean origins. Children born or found on mi- grant vessels in international wa- ters and later brought to Malta also face statelessness as do people in Malta born outside their parents' country of origin and for whom no birth registration was done or for whom no registration of national- ity (where necessary) took place with the authorities of the parents' country. 'My mental health is getting worse' Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medi- cal care, or legal employment. It can mean a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects, or hope. Alem and Freweini (not their real names), twin sisters who reached Malta in 2011, were among the stateless people interviewed by the UNHCR in 2014. Born in Ethiopia around 1985 to an Ethiopian mother and an Eritrean father, their births were never registered. The women have been told that their father travelled to Eritrea when they were about one year old and he passed away there, leaving their mother to raise them and their siblings in Ethiopia. Alem says "once grown up, we realised that without documenta- tion, we could not work legally. Born without Government is being urged to grant citizenship to stateless minors born in Malta, whose laws deny them citizenship despite being born in our land Rohingya refugees inside a camp. They are amongst the most persecuted people in the world.