Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Iraq 5. DOCUMENTATION IN IRAQ DOCUMENT APPLIES TO CITIZENSHIP CERTIFICATE (OR NATIONALITY CERTIFICATE SHAHADAT AL-JINSIYA) Nationals CIVIL STATUS IDENTITY CARD (BITAQA SHAKHSIYEH OR BITAQA HAWWIYA) Nationals RESIDENCE CARD (BITAQA SAKAN) Nationals PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (FOOD RATION) CARD Nationals PC-MOI113 Red CARDS Palestinian refugees PC-MOI YELLOW CARDS Palestinian refugees PC-MOI REFUGEE CARDS Refugees in Iraq MOI TRAVEL DOCUMENT PALESTINIAN PASSPORT UNHCR Certificate Palestinian refugees who arrived in 1948 All other Palestinian refugees in Iraq Refugees in Iraq, including some Palestinian refugees from Iraq DESCRIPTION Certifies Iraqi nationality. If Dom possess these documents they are usually stamped with the word, “Exception”, thereby restricting them from being able to access government employment. See 4.3 for further details. Main ID card for Iraqi nationals. Treated in a similar way as birth certificates. Both the Citizenship Certificate and Civil Status Identity Card are required to access public services, including food assistance through the Public Distribution System (PDS), healthcare, employment, education and housing, and to obtain a passport. One of the five main documents issues to Iraqi nationals, together with the Iraqi Passport, Citizenship Certificate, Civil Status Identity Card and Food Ration Card. It can be issued to anybody as it indicates where somebody lives/their locality and place of registered presence. Issued to allow access to government services and required to be produced in order to obtain various civil documentation. In the past it has had other usages, such as voter registration. It is considered to be the strongest form of civil identity documentation in Iraq.112 Only applies to Palestinian refugees who arrived in 1948 or later (including their descendants). Only applies to Palestinian refugees who arrived in 1967 or later (including their descendants). Originally applied to all non-Palestinian refugees in Iraq. However, since early 2018 Palestinians are eligible for refugee cards and they do not distinguish between their dates of arrival. The MOI Travel Document is issued by the Ministry of Interior Resident Affairs Directorate. The Palestinian Passport is issued by the Palestinian Embassy in Baghdad. Most refugees who have registered with UNHCR in Iraq possess a UNHCR Certificate, unless lost or stolen. In Iraq, the certificate issued by UNHCR may be titled ‘Asylum Seeker Certificate’ (not ‘Refugee Certificate’), but it is issued to persons UNHCR considers to be refugees. Palestinian refugees from Iraq hold a UNHCR Certificate and/or a PC-MOI ID Card. It is important to note that the table above lists some Iraqi documents, but it is not exhaustive.114 It also must be noted that in many cases stateless individuals do not have any documentation at all. 112 Despite being intended only as a food ration card, this is considered to be the strongest form of civil identity documentation in Iraq because it is considreded to be the most resistent to fraud due to each having a unique code and the possibility to search the database for details to cross-check the holder’s identity. It is also one of the few electronic ID systems in Iraq. 113 Iraqi Permanent Committee for Refugee Affairs of the Ministry of Interior (PC-MOI). 114 Documents obtained from: UNHCR, International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Republic of Iraq, May 2019, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5cc9b20c4.html; Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Country Information Report – Iraq, 9 October 2017, at 5.27, available at: https://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Documents/country-information-reportiraq.pdf; Humanitarian Practice Network, Identity crisis? Documentation for the displaced in Iraq, October 2015, available at: 19