Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2016/05 1. Introduction In light of the emerging awareness of the strong connection between the continuing refugee crisis in Europe and the greatly overlooked issue of statelessness 1 in the European context, the arrival of stateless asylum-seekers 2 to Europe raised particular attention. The mass displacement of Syrians fleeing the war coupled with gender-discriminatory nationality laws applied in Syria and other MENAT countries3(where nationality is dependent on the father) hosting millions of Syrian refugees, put a generation of Syrian children at high risk of statelessness. Not possessing the nationality of the country they have effective bonds with shall not only prevent Syrian children from accessing basic human rights4 but also keep them away from post-conflict repatriation to Syria and from asserting their Syrian citizenship upon return. This would have a long-lasting effect on the EU, by facing the challenge to resettle Syrian non-nationals in need of international protection beyond refugees. In addition, the persistence of statelessness in itself could be the cause of the mass displacement of stateless minorities driven by the despair of non-existence. Considering the undeniable link between statelessness and displacement, including those seeking refuge in the EU,5 the latter has an incontented interest to prevent, reduce and eventually eradicate statelessness. This engagement must be prevalent not only in the area of freedom, security and justice but also beyond it in order to mitigate the scale of the escalating refugee crisis in Europe and its neighboorhood and to make a positive impact on millions of stateless peoples’ lives, with special regard to Syrian minors without a nationality, to get a chance to lead a meaningful life in a country where they belong. The external focus of research papers on stateless persons is usually rather limited in terms of the EU’s potential role in addressing the issue of statelessness as an integral part of its external policy, both at the multilateral and bilateral levels. Among other considerations, relevant EU policy papers, scholarly works and NGO publications 6 seem to share the assumption that without the establishment of consistent measures within the EU (elaboration of dedicated national statelessness determination procedures, development of minimum standards to protect and identifiy stateless persons throughout all 28 Member States), it has yet to demonstrate its full engagement in implementing the protection of stateless persons. This will indeed greatly contribute to establish its credibility to legitimately export and promote relevant standards in its external engagement vis-à-vis third countries. Tothis end, this paper strives to assess the already existing tools and platforms, together with those under development of EU foreign policy that could positively influence non-EU countries where childhood statelessness is an emerging issue. Its geographic scope is the MENAT region with a primary focus on 1 The international legal definition of a stateless person is proclaimed in Article 1(1) of the 1954 New York Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons defining a stateless person as "a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law" establishing it as a status under international law. 2 Those individuals who meet the criteria set out in Article 1 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, including those who did not have a nationality prior to their departure. 3 For the purposes of this article, the MENAT region comprises Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen and Turkey. 4 Most importantly, the right to education and health care, later the right to work legally, get married, vote, etc. 5 K Berényi, Statelessness and the refugee crisis in the EU, Forced Migration Review, Issue 53, Refugee Studies Center, University of Oxford, 2016, pp. 69-71. 6 See, e.g. Addressing the human rights policy impact of statelessness in the EU’s external action, European Parliament, DG for External Policies, November 2014, p 22; K Swider: Protection and Identification of Stateless Persons through EU Law, Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance, Working Paper Series, 2014 – 05, p 21-22; European Network on Statelessness Submission to the European Commission Consultation on the future of Home Affairs policies: An open and safe Europe – what next?, 2014, p 5. 1