MAPPING OF THE POPULATION AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN ALBANIA 4.3.2. Preventing statelessness 4.3.2.1. Avoiding statelessness at birth 4.3.2.1.1. Granting of nationality to otherwise stateless children born on Albanian territory As mentioned, every child born within the territories of the Republic of Albania, even to parents who are citizens of another country but legally residing in Albania, can acquire Albanian citizenship. However, the law excludes children whose parents are not legal residents in Albania – and it also requires consent of both parents to be given. For children born to foreign or stateless parents who do not hold legal residence in the country, there is no pathway for accessing Albanian citizenship, even if the child would otherwise be left stateless. This is a clear gap in the legislation and conflicts with the terms of the 1961 Convention and the ECN, to which Albania is a state party.38 In addition, there are, in practice, obstacles to birth registration of children of asylum seekers, such as delays on issuance of residence permits, coupled with the fact that they sometime prefer to move forward and leave Albania without a birth certificate for their new-borns. Foreign parents who wish to claim citizenship for their Albanian-born child must make an application, submitting documents which prove that they are lawful residents in the Republic of Albania, following which the child is registered immediately as an Albanian citizen on the basis of this procedure initiated by the parents. The institution in charge of the process of acquisition is the civil status office in the area where the parents reside or in the area where the child has been found. These offices sit within the General Civil Status Division, which in turn is part of the Ministry of Interior. 4.3.2.1.2. Access to nationality for otherwise stateless children born outside the country Article 7 of Law no. 8389, date 5th August 1998 “On Albanian Citizenship” amended by law no. 8442, date 21st January 1999 “On some amendment of the law no.8389, date 5th August 1998 “On Albanian Citizenship”, provides that “Any individual born to one (or two) parent(s) of Albanian nationality, acquires automatically Albanian nationality”. This provision makes no distinction on whether the parents are married or not. The child acquires Albanian nationality, as long as at least one of the parents has Albanian nationality, even if the parents in question are not married. 38 See Gezim Krasniqi, Albania to Grant Citizenship to Ethnic Albanians in the Neighbourhood and Diaspora, Citizenship in South East Europe, 2013, http://www.citsee.eu/blog/albania-grant-citizenship-ethnic-albanians-neighbourhood-and-diaspora UNHCR - TLAS / May 2018 37