• Text size Normal size text | Increase text size by 10% | Increase text size by 20% | Increase text size by 30%

UNHCR publication for CIS Conference (Displacement in the CIS) - In legal limbo: asylum-seekers and statelessness

Refugees Magazine, 1 May 1996

Refugees and asylum-seekers

The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the outbreak of armed conflicts and ethnic clashes in several CIS countries have resulted in forced population displacements (including refugees and internally displaced people) that are unprecedented – both in terms of the number of people affected and the complexity of the issues.

In addition, all CIS countries are confronted with the new challenge of coping with the arrival of asylum-seekers from non-CIS countries (in particular Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Ethiopia, Angola and Zaire). Afghans – as many as 200,000 of whom are estimated to be living in CIS countries – constitute the largest group of non-CIS asylum-seekers.

The refugee population in the CIS region has a number of unusual features, linked to the sudden and dramatic change of identity of the state in which they are living. They include a large group of 'refugees sur place' – people who arrived in the USSR either by choice, or as a result of bilateral agreements, and were subsequently stranded in the successor states as a result of changes within their own country, or in the relationship between their home country and their newly metamorphosed host country. Examples of refugees sur place include former students from countries that were within the Soviet sphere of influence, children of communist Afghan officials (including many orphans) and North Korean timber workers.

As of mid-April, only four CIS countries had acceded to the 1951 Convention on Refugees and its 1967 Protocol (with a fifth, Kyrgyzstan, on the verge of doing so). Only four have adopted sound national legislation on refugees. However, even for these states, the implementation of international obligations deriving from accession to the 1951 Convention and/or the adoption of national refugee legislation poses a serious problem: as yet, none of the countries possesses sufficient institutional capacity to fully translate the national and international laws into consistent everyday practice.

The consequence of this absence of sound legislation, or its imperfect implementation, is that, in almost all CIS countries (with the possible exception of Tajikistan), non-CIS asylum-seekers do not have access to a refugee status determination procedure, do not enjoy the protection of their asylum country, and have no legal status nor any social or economic rights.

CIS refugees have in general found protection in their country of nationality (for instance ethnic Armenians from Azerbaijan moving to Armenia), and governments are in the process of identifying durable solutions for each group. However, in many CIS countries, existing regulations that restrict freedom of movement and choice of place of residence constitute a major obstacle to the successful local integration of refugees and IDPs from within the CIS region, as well as refugees from non-CIS countries.

Statelessness

In December 1991, Soviet citizenship ceased to exist, leaving 287 million people in need of a new identity. One of the primary tasks of the newly independent states has been to define precisely who their citizens are, and to establish new rules for the granting of citizenship.

CIS countries have, broadly speaking, gone about this in two different ways. Several governments (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia and to some extent Moldova) have chosen the so-called 'zero option,' according to which all those who were permanent residents when the new law entered into force were counted as citizens. Some other governments (including most of the Central Asian states and Azerbaijan) have employed the concept of nationality used by the former USSR, and only granted citizenship to those people who had been considered as nationals before independence.

Given the different criteria used by the successor states of the USSR for the constitution of their citizenry and the granting of citizenship – criteria that are sometimes conflicting or contradictory – some groups of people have been left out and are, as a result, effectively stateless. This is the current position facing some of the formerly deported peoples, for example some Meskhetians and Crimean Tatars, who had not managed to return to their country of origin before the Soviet Union dissolved.

It is also the case for certain groups living in countries where the criterion of the previous nationality has been used: as they were not considered part of the national group, they have not been granted the citizenship of the successor state. If their state of ancestral origin belongs to the 'zero option' group, and they were not permanent residents at the time of entry into force of the citizenship law, they fail to qualify for citizenship there as well. Some Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians living in Central Asia are among those who fall into this category.

Statelessness can result in displacement, but only when it is combined with other factors (such as conflict, a rise in inter-ethnic tensions or economic insecurity). Because of the lack of legal protection from clearly identified national authorities, stateless people may be tempted to move in order to find such protection elsewhere – one of the reasons why many people have been leaving Central Asia. However, others in the same situation prefer to stay, either because they do not feel particularly threatened, or because they feel a move will leave them financially worse off.

CIS countries that have ratified selected international instruments

1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Russian Federation
Tajikistan

1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness
Armenia

1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Georgia
Kyrgyzstan
Moldova
Russian Federation
Ukraine
Uzbekistan

1949 Geneva Conventions
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
All CIS countries

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

 

Related stories by:

UNHCR country pages

Helping the World's Stateless People

Statelessness brochure coverAnswers to some of the most commonly asked questions about stateless people and what UNHCR does to help them, published 2011.

Stateless People

Millions of stateless people are left in a legal limbo, with limited basic rights.

UN Conventions on Statelessness

The two UN statelessness conventions are the key legal instruments in the protection of stateless people around the world.

Statelessness in Kyrgyzstan

Two decades after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, thousands of people in former Soviet republics like Kyrgyzstan are still facing problems with citizenship. UNHCR has identified more than 20,000 stateless people in the Central Asian nation. These people are not considered as nationals under the laws of any country. While many in principle fall under the Kyrgyz citizenship law, they have not been confirmed as nationals under the existing procedures.

Most of the stateless people in Kyrgyzstan have lived there for many years, have close family links in the country and are culturally and socially well-integrated. But because they lack citizenship documents, these folk are often unable to do the things that most people take for granted, including registering a marriage or the birth of a child, travelling within Kyrgyzstan and overseas, receiving pensions or social allowances or owning property. The stateless are more vulnerable to economic hardship, prone to higher unemployment and do not enjoy full access to education and medical services.

Since independence in 1991, Kyrgyzstan has taken many positive steps to reduce and prevent statelessness. And UNHCR, under its statelessness mandate, has been assisting the country by providing advice on legislation and practices as well as giving technical assistance to those charged with solving citizenship problems. The refugee agency's NGO partners provide legal counselling to stateless people and assist them in their applications for citizenship.

However, statelessness in Kyrgyzstan is complex and thousands of people, mainly women and children, still face legal, administrative and financial hurdles when seeking to confirm or acquire citizenship. In 2009, with the encouragement of UNHCR, the government adopted a national action plan to prevent and reduce statelessness. In 2011, the refugee agency will help revise the plan and take concrete steps to implement it. A concerted effort by all stakeholders is needed so that statelessness does not become a lingering problem for future generations.

Statelessness in Kyrgyzstan

Statelessness in Viet Nam

Viet Nam's achievements in granting citizenship to thousands of stateless people over the last two years make the country a global leader in ending and preventing statelessness.

Left stateless after the 1975 collapse of the bloody Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, nearly 1,400 former Cambodian refugees received citizenship in Viet Nam in 2010, the culmination of five years of cooperation between the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Vietnamese government. Most of the former refugees have lived in Viet Nam since 1975, all speak Vietnamese and have integrated fully. Almost 1,000 more are on track to get their citizenship in the near future. With citizenship comes the all-important family registration book that governs all citizens' interactions with the government in Viet Nam, as well as a government identification card. These two documents allow the new citizens to purchase property, attend universities and get health insurance and pensions. The documents also allow them to do simple things they could not do before, such as own a motorbike.

Viet Nam also passed a law in 2009 to restore citizenship to Vietnamese women who became stateless in the land of their birth after they married foreign men, but divorced before getting foreign citizenship for them and their children.

UNHCR estimates that up to 12 million people around the world are currently stateless.

Statelessness in Viet Nam

Statelessness among Brazilian Expats

Irina was born in 1998 in Switzerland, daughter of a Brazilian mother and her Swiss boyfriend. Soon afterwards, her mother Denise went to the Brazilian Consulate in Geneva to get a passport for Irina. She was shocked when consular officials told her that under a 1994 amendment to the constitution, children born overseas to Brazilians could not automatically gain citizenship. To make matters worse,the new-born child could not get the nationality of her father at birth either. Irina was issued with temporary travel documents and her mother was told she would need to sort out the problem in Brazil.

In the end, it took Denise two years to get her daughter a Brazilian birth certificate, and even then it was not regarded as proof of nationality by the authorities. Denise turned for help to a group called Brasileirinhos Apátridas (Stateless Young Brazilians), which was lobbying for a constitutional amendment to guarantee nationality for children born overseas with at least one Brazilian parent.

In 2007, Brazil's National Congress approved a constitutional amendment that dropped the requirement of residence in Brazil for receiving citizenship. In addition to benefitting Irina, the law helped an estimated 200,000 children, who would have otherwise been left stateless and without many of thebasic rights that citizens enjoy. Today, children born abroad to Brazilian parents automatically receive Brazilian nationality at birth.

"As a mother it was impossible to accept that my daughter wasn't considered Brazilian like me and her older brother, who was also born in Switzerland before the 1994 constitutional change," said Denise. "For me, the fact that my daughter would depend on a tourist visa to live in Brazil was an aberration."

Irina shares her mother's discomfort. "It's quite annoying when you feel you belong to a country and your parents only speak to you in that country's language, but you can't be recognized as a citizen of that country. It feels like they are stealing your childhood," the 12-year-old said.

Statelessness among Brazilian Expats

UNHCR : Breakthrough on StatelessnessPlay video

UNHCR : Breakthrough on Statelessness

UNHCR's ministerial conference in Geneva takes a great step forward in resolving the issue of statelessness. On the sidelines of the meeting, Serbia and Turkmenistan acceded to the statelessness conventions.
Vincent Cochetel interviewPlay video

Vincent Cochetel interview

On the occasion of World Humanitarian Day 2010, a senior UNHCR staff member reflects on his experience being kidnapped near Chechnya in 1998.
UN High Commissioner Visits Georgia and RussiaPlay video

UN High Commissioner Visits Georgia and Russia

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres spent four days in Georgia and the Russian Federation to assess UNHCR's humanitarian operations and to speak with those affected by the recent fighting in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.