MAY 2020 The Impact of COVID-19 on Stateless Populations: Policy Recommendations and Good Practices Many millions of people around the world are stateless.1 Without any nationality, they lack the privileges and protections that citizens enjoy. While the COVID-19 virus poses certain risks to everyone, stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness are particularly vulnerable in a number of ways. First, they are more likely to have underlying health conditions and to live in conditions that put them at heightened risk of infection. Second, they may not have access to testing or treatment on an equal basis with nationals or foreign nationals who are legally staying in the country. Health care services may be denied or may be prohibitively expensive for those not legally resident on the territory. Third, they may fear coming forward for testing or treatment because of their legal status, which can put them at risk of detention or deportation. In the face of the global pandemic, governments are taking extraordinary measures to limit the spread of the virus so as to protect their populations and maintain functioning healthcare systems. In doing so, it is important that governments take the specific situation and vulnerabilities of stateless persons and those at risk of statelessness into account. Protecting everyone on the territory, irrespective of their legal status, is critical to any sound public health strategy. All persons should be included in national response plans accordingly, consistent with the UN Secretary-General’s urging that governments take human rights-oriented responses that put people at the centre. This paper outlines ways in which stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness may be disproportionately impacted by the crisis and aims to provide governments and other stakeholders with recommendations and examples of good practices in these areas. It also addresses the risks of statelessness that may arise as a result of disruptions to the full functioning of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems and other documentation services such as the issuance of national ID cards. The information in this paper has been compiled based on inputs from UNHCR field offices, the UN Legal Identity Agenda Task Force, government statements, and other sources. The list of good practices is a limited selection of positive measures that governments have taken to date. 1 UNHCR reports some 3.9 million people as being stateless, but the real figure is likely to be many millions higher as fewer than half of all governments worldwide collect and report any data on stateless persons. More information about statelessness and UNHCR’s #IBelong Campaign is available at: https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/. UNHCR / May 2020 1