Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Iraq 4. POPULATIONS AFFECTED BY STATELESSNESS IN IRAQ UNHCR estimates 47,630 people in Iraq to be affected by statelessness. However, UNHCR also notes, “[p]ending a more accurate study into statelessness in Iraq, the estimate of stateless persons in Iraq has been adjusted to reflect the reduction of statelessness in line with Law 26 of 2006 [Nationality Law], which allows stateless persons to apply for nationality in certain circumstances.”47 Due to definitional issues, gaps in data collection tools and lack of comprehensive data collection, this can be considered a vastly conservative estimate, regardless of Law No. 26 of 2006. Stateless refugees are generally excluded from UNHCR’s estimate of stateless populations and therefore stateless Kurds displaced from Syria by the conflict and living as refugees in Iraq are not identified in the statelessness statistics. Meanwhile, according to UNHCR, there is an increased risk of statelessness as a growing number of people are either unable to acquire or are denied access to civil documentation. 4.1 Faili Kurds There are approximately 1.5 million Faili Kurds in Iraq. 48 They are “considered a cross-border population” between Iraq and Iran. 49 A majority of the Faili Kurds in Iraq reside in Baghdad, the border regions and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. 50 Unlike a majority of Kurds, Faili Kurds are identified as Shia Muslims and have historically been victims of hostility and mistrust by the Iraqi authorities.51 For example, pursuant to Decree No. 666 of 1980, the Revolutionary Command Council declared, “Iraqi nationality shall be dropped from any Iraqi of foreign origin if it is appeared that he is not loyal to the homeland, people, higher national and social objectives of the Revolution.”52 This applied directly to Faili Kurds, who were perceived to be loyal to Iran following an assassination attempt on the Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, in April 1980 by a Faili Kurd from Iraq.53 As a result, “Faili Kurds were systematically rounded up, and various state agencies cooperated in compiling lists of names for deportation” to Iran, with estimates ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of individuals.54 Even before the issuing of Decree No. 666 of 1980, Faili Kurds experienced persecution in Iraq and “[w]hile forced deportation and the questioning of Faili Kurds’ citizenship was not a new phenomenon, the mass deprivation of citizenship was.”55 The number of those affected subsequently increased due to the hereditary nature of this stateless status. 47 UNHCR, Global Trends – 2017, June 2018, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/5b27be547/unhcr-global-trends2017.html 48 Minority Rights Group International, Iraq – Faili Kurds, November 2017, available at: https://minorityrights.org/minorities/faili-kurds/ 49 Minority Rights Group International, Iraq – Faili Kurds, November 2017, available at: https://minorityrights.org/minorities/faili-kurds/ 50 Minority Rights Group International, Iraq – Faili Kurds, November 2017, available at: https://minorityrights.org/minorities/faili-kurds/ 51 Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Country Information Report – Iraq, 9 October 2017, at 3.4, available at: https://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Documents/country-information-report-iraq.pdf 52 Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, Decree No. 666 of 1980, 26 May 1980, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b51d28.html 53 Minority Rights Group International, Iraq – Faili Kurds, November 2017, available at: https://minorityrights.org/minorities/faili-kurds/ 54 Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Country Information Report – Iraq, 9 October 2017, at 3.4, available at: https://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Documents/country-information-report-iraq.pdf suggests tens of thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands were expelled from Iraq; the Minority Rights Group International, Iraq – Faili Kurds, November 2017, available at: https://minorityrights.org/minorities/faili-kurds/ suggests numbers ranged from 150,000-500,000. 55 Tucker, Jason, Exploring Statelessness in Iran: Gaps in the nationality law, populations of concern and areas for future research, 2014, at 11, https://www.academia.edu/7156718/Exploring_Statelessness_and_Nationality_in_Iran 11