Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Iran 5.4.2 Access to Iranian Nationality For an individual to apply for Iranian nationality, under Article 979 of the Nationality Law, he or she must have reached the age of 18 and have resided in Iran for at least five years (whether continuously or intermittently). 85 According to Article 983, the application for naturalisation must be accompanied by identity documents and a certificate “from the police stating the period of residence of the applicant in Iran, his clean record, and possession of sufficient property or of employment, which ensures a livelihood.” These may be difficult for Afghan refugees to provide. Afghan women who marry an Iranian man may be able to access Iranian nationality through article 979 of the Nationality Law,86 without recourse to the regular provisions for naturalisation. Again, however, lack of documentation of identity or marriage registration may form a barrier. As per Article 12 of the Personal Status Registration Act, every child born in Iran must be reported to the Civil Birth Registration Organisation, regardless of the nationality of the parents.87 Despite this, legal, administrative, economic, and cultural hurdles can prevent refugee parents from registering the birth of their children. Among the undocumented Afghan refugee demographic, the prevalence of home births creates a further barrier to registration as the process of registering a birth following a home delivery is long and arduous.88 In order to access Iranian nationality under Article 976(4) of the Nationality Law, which allows children born inside Iran to foreign parents to acquire Iranian nationality if one parent was also born inside Iran may be problematic due to lack of access to civil registration and therefore the absence of proof of birth in Iran of both the child and the parents. For more information on birth registration please refer to section 2.6. In the case of Afghan refugee children seeking to acquire Iranian nationality therefore, they may not be able to acquire Iranian nationality, even if ultimately rendered stateless as a result. The Bill amending the Nationality Law that was passed in October 2019 and allows conferral by application to children of Iranian women married to foreign men should enable the children of Iranian women and Afghan men access to Iranian nationality through the mother provided they pass the security checks. At the time of writing, it was not yet clear how this change would be implemented and whether any obstacles might arise in practice with regard to the application process and documentation requirements. 5.4.3 Access to Services For both documented and undocumented Afghans living in Iran, access to basic government services is difficult.89 The Iranian Ministry of Interior’s Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants’ Affairs (BAFIA) is the department responsible for refugee affairs and are the authority responsible for issuing the ‘Amayesh card’ to refugees. The Amayesh system is a registration programme 85 Iran Nationality Law, Article 979. Iranian Nationality Law, Article 976 (6). 87 Iranian Civil Registration Law, Article 12, available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/vitalstatkb/KnowledgebaseArticle51034.aspx 88 Consultation with experts on civil registration practices in Iran, September 2019. 89 Radio Farda (2018) Children of Undocumented Afghan Refugees Exploited in Iran, available at: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/childrenof-undocumented-afghan-refugees-exploited-in-iran/29596142.html 86 16