UNICEF and UNHCR have joined their efforts in calling for governments and regional organizations to end child statelessness in Europe, after the significant rise in the number of children identified as stateless in Europe in the recent years.
According to Pascale Moreau, the UNHCR’s Director of the Bureau for Europe “life is stacked against a stateless child right from the start. Like all of us, they can dream, and they can hope, but the legal obstacles they face often mean their dreams are dashed before they are adults, and their potential squandered.”
Without nationality children have difficulties to get access to basic services and rights, from housing to health care and education. As a result, it is essential for governments not only to prevent children being born stateless, but also to help stateless children get citizenship.
The two UN agencies provided three concrete, low cost steps European countries can implement to address this issue, including to ensure stateless refugee and migrants children are identified upon their arrival to the respective country, simplify procedures for obtaining citizenship and grant nationality to all children that were born in the country, but would otherwise be stateless.