SUB-REGIONAL OVERVIEW: THE PACIFIC Papua New Guinea’s Pledges to End Statelessness SUB-REGIONAL OVERVIEW: THE PACIFIC Causes of Statelessness FIGURE 5 Reported stateless persons to the UNHCR Discriminatory nationality laws In 2011, Papua New Guinea pledged to amend its legislation to be able to remove the reservations made to the Refugee Convention.1701 It also pledged to facilitate access to naturalization of “West Papuan and other refugees by either waiving all fees or introducing a nominal fee only for applications for citizenship by refugees”.1702 Since 2011, PNG has removed all seven reservations on the Refugee Convention in relation to refugees transferring from Australia, leaving room for legislative improvement in other contexts.1703 As mentioned in the 2016 UPR submission, PNG has also reduced the fees for citizenship applications for all refugee applicants.1704 For West Papuan refugees, the fee has been waived entirely.1705 12 9 6 Lack of legal safeguards against childhood statelessness 3 0 2020 (year end) 2021 (year start) 2022 (year end) Population Stateless Refugees Reported stateless persons All of the stateless persons reported to UNHCR by PNG are stateless Rohingya refugees.1709 In 2022, Papua New Guinea reported 9 stateless persons to UNHCR, an increase of 1 person since 2021.1706 Papua New Guinea only started reporting population numbers to UNHCR at the start of 2020 at 14 stateless persons.1707 UNHCR noted that for each year, the reported numbers do not estimate the entire stateless population and only constitutes Rohingya refugees in PNG.1708 Without legislation for a stateless identification procedure, data on the number of stateless persons is largely unavailable. Persons at risk of statelessness Children born to foreign or non-refugee stateless parents within the territory may be at risk of statelessness, if not eligible for citizenship elsewhere as the country does not have any provisions to provide citizenship to them. 152 For children born to foreigners in PNG, there are some gender discriminatory procedures for birth registration.1714 In order to register a birth in this case, the parents must provide the father’s work permit and only allow the father as a witness.1715 This could result in children born to foreign parents unable to register their birth, potentially placing them at risk of statelessness. 15 Undetermined nationalities Concerns have previously been expressed by UNHCR and other civil society organizations regarding the potential statelessness of West Papuan refugees in Papua New Guinea, who due to absence from West Papua have lost their Indonesian citizenship and have been unable to access Papua New Guinean citizenship through naturalization.1710 The Immigration and Citizenship Authority of Papua New Guinea has estimated that there are between 10-15,000 Indonesian Papuans living in the country.1711 While there have been reports in recent years of some West Papuan refugees accessing citizenship, this does not appear to be universal,1712 In 2021, the US Department of State reported that no Indonesian Papuans had been granted citizenship that year.1713 STATELESSNESS ENCYCLOPEDIA ASIA PACIFIC (DETAILED VERSION) While some protections exist in the laws of Papua New Guinea for stateless children to gain citizenship, they are insufficient in providing protection to all stateless children born on the territory of Papua New Guinea. Under the current provisions children born to parents whose citizenship is ‘unknown or doubtful’ can gain access to citizenship through a similar deeming provision available to foundlings.1716 Legislation does not protect children born to foreign citizen parents in Papua New Guinea from becoming stateless if they are not eligible for citizenship elsewhere. Citizenship stripping and administrative barriers Under the 1958 citizenship law of Indonesia, Indonesians living abroad for a period of more than five years without registration would be deprived of their citizenship.1717 Such citizenship deprivation was the initial cause of the potential statelessness of West Papuan refugees in Papua New Guinea.1718 However it is administrative barriers within Papua New Guinea that has There have been reports that children born to Papua New Guinean women and refugee men who had been detained in the Manus Island detention centre have been denied birth registration and barred from accessing citizenship. protracted their situation. While eligible for naturalization due to the extended periods of residence of West Papuan refugees in the territory, access to citizenship has been a slow and complex process.1719 There have been reports that children born to Papua New Guinean women and refugee men who had been detained in the Manus Island detention centre have been denied birth registration and barred from accessing citizenship.1720 In 2018, Papua New Guinea’s birth registration rate was reported at only 13%, the lowest in the entire Asia-Pacific region.1721 With a population of over 11 million, this lack of documentation and registration leaves thousands at risk of statelessness.1722 FIGURE 6 Birth registration in Papua New Guinea 11% 2021 Population Estimates: National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea REPORT 2024 153