Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/788859
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2017 News 17 Without information about my father's origins, it was impossible to pursue Eritrean documentation and we were struggling un- der the discrimination faced in Ethiopia and the fact that we were continually refused ac- knowledgement and documentation." Her sister adds "I do not have documenta- tion in Malta and I did not have it in Ethi- opia. I cannot work and my mental health is getting worse. All I want is to be docu- mented and offered some kind of assistance so that I can start building my life... perhaps even together with my children who are still with my mother in Ethiopia?" If Malta creates a statelessness determina- tion procedure, Freweini's links with Ethio- pia and Eritrea could be explored and in the event that no country recognises her as their national, such a determination procedure could grant Freweini a legal status as a state- less person and provide her with access to a protection framework. As things stand now, she has little hope for the future. Quis, a Kurdish man and his Syrian wife, had two children in Malta. However, since Quis is stateless and his wife as a woman cannot pass on her nationality to children born abroad, the children are stateless. After reaching Malta in 2002, Quis mar- ried his wife two years later and their chil- dren were born in 2005 and 2008. "We really like life in Malta but the future is so uncertain and we do not have many rights here. After being paid children's al- lowance for two years, the authorities in- formed us that this was a mistake and that we would have to repay it. And I have always paid taxes and national insurance and still I do not have the right to receive children's al- lowance or unemployment benefits." Living in uncertainty Kadija (not her real name) was born in Eritrea in the mid-1980s. Her birth was not registered and when she was one year old, her father left to work as a soldier with the Eritrean army, which was waging war with Ethiopia. One year later, her family settled in Ethio- pia, only for her father to "disappear" in her early teens. "He just vanished. No one knew what had happened but it was not unusual for Eritre- ans to be arrested in Ethiopia at the time. My mother was unable to leave the house due to her sickness and the fact that she was blind. Without the support of my parents, growing up as an Eritrean in Ethiopia without docu- ments was difficult. Like mine, my mother's birth was not registered so I did not have any evidence of my origins." Without identification documentation, Kadija could not attend school or access free medical services. The local administration in her village persistently refused to issue her family with identity documents. "The only chance to be recognised by Eri- trea was with my father's help but there was no way for me to find out if he was alive and where he was. All I wanted was to have some recognition as a person, I did not want to be undocumented any more. When I was about 20 years old, I attempted to enter Eritrea. But it was to no avail. After having walked through the desert towards Eritrea with my brother for three days, other Eritreans told us that we would be arrested upon entry since we did not have any documentation, so we were forced to turn back." After settling in Gondar in Ethiopia, Kadija married a Somali man who was also fleeing persecution in his country. But her brother was arrested and her hus- band continuously beaten up by the police. Not feeling safe in Ethiopia, Kadija and her husband were forced to flee the country, leaving behind their daughter and the rest of Kadija's family, whom she has not been able to communicate with since her departure. In Sudan, the couple was forced to flee again to avoid the round up of undocumented for- eigners. Kadija was too afraid to ask for docu- mentation from either the Eritrean or the Ethiopian consular authorities in Sudan since she feared detention in either country. Once in Libya, Kadija was imprisoned for being an illegal immigrant but eventually released be- cause she was due to give birth. The family managed to board a boat which was rescued and brought to Malta where they were grant- ed international protection (Subsidiary). "The Eritreans see me as being Ethiopian and the Ethiopians believe I am Eritrean. My husband's Somali acquaintances see me as of mixed ethnicity so I end up spending most of my time alone at our home." After arriving in Malta in 2012, Kadija is safe but feels excluded by all of the migrant communities to which she would have nor- mally been linked. Kadija's future in Malta remains uncertain since she has no real prospect of confirming her claim to Eritrean or Ethiopian nationality or ever being granted Maltese nationality. jbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt statehood Arriving irregularly and undocumented in Malta does not make a person stateless. Staying or working irregularly also does not make people stateless. In most cases, statelessness arises in the context of the dissolution of a country, e.g. after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, millions were left stateless throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia when they failed to acquire a nationality under the new nationality legislations. Twenty years later, hundreds of thousands of people in the region remain stateless. A more recent example is the secession of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011. Parts of the population in the newly independent state of South Sudan remain at high risk of becoming stateless by virtue of being of mixed Sudanese-South Sudanese parentage, originating from border areas, or having resided in Sudan or in other countries for an extended period of time. What is 'Statelessness'? Definition of Statelessness: A person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. "I do not have documentation in Malta and I did not have it in Ethiopia. I cannot work and my mental health is getting worse. All I want is to be documented and offered some kind of assistance so that I can start building my life..."