MAPPING OF THE POPULATION AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN ALBANIA 2. STATELESSNESS AROUND THE WORLD 2.1. Overview of the statelessness situation around the world Being stateless means, in practice, that a person doesn’t have the recognition or protection of any country. Without the protection of citizenship, stateless individuals are highly vulnerable to discrimination and abuse and are often denied their human rights by the state in which they live. Many stateless persons try to avoid detection, for fear of poor treatment or even expulsion. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to put an accurate figure to the number of stateless people in the world today. UNHCR estimates that there are more than 10 million stateless persons globally, of which 3.5 million are in countries for which there are reliable statistics counting stateless individuals (only 55 countries report to UNHCR on their statelessness statistics and situation). Of this number around a third are children.9 Around the world, it is no coincidence that countries with the greatest population of stateless people are also those in conflict or where the state is failing or struggling. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion lists 20 countries with an officially recorded stateless population of more than 20,000 people – including, Poland, Germany and Sweden. However, it recognises that these official figures are only a part of the story and that the world cases of statelessness are not recorded or officially acknowledged. 10 However, the report goes on to note “[i]n terms of absolute numbers, most of the persons UNHCR reports as falling within its statelessness mandate can be found in Asia and the Pacific.” In terms of continents, Africa shows the second greatest number of stateless cases, followed by Europe. If we look at a national level, of the top twenty countries with a stateless population of more than 10,000, seven are in Europe, six in Asia and the Pacific, four in the Middle East and North Africa, two in Africa and one in the Americas. Taken together, the Asia Pacific region has both the greatest number of documented cases of stateless9 UNHCR, ending statelessness, available here: http://www.unhcr.org/statelessness-around-the-world.html 10 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion “The World’s Stateless” December 2014, available here: http://www.institutesi.org/worldsstateless.pdf UNHCR - TLAS / May 2018 19