Introducing ‘unwanted’ noncitizens 57 withheld from some. Indeed, even discussing whether irregular immigrants are eligible for access to goods considered to be human rights allows the possibility that such persons implicitly (or perhaps even explicitly) can be considered not fully human. This goes deeper than the question of access to specific rights. While noncitizens in situ do not always fare badly, ‘unwanted’ noncitizens often do. Without access to a humanity-confirming status, ‘unwanted’ noncitizens are often forbidden from working and unable to access welfare systems. Consequently, such persons may find life, or core aspects of life, effectively legally forbidden.66 And yet it is the liberal State and the State system that have created the categories of irregularity and created the conditions that push people to enter into them. One commentator has described the situation for stateless persons as a continuing ‘blind spot on the international community’s agenda’.67 The same can be said for noncitizens more broadly, since while specific noncitizen groups are given specific sets of protections by virtue of some form of quasi-citizenship, there is not a general appreciation of the vulnerability of noncitizenship and the obligations that this places on States. ‘Unwanted’ by whom? Unrecognised noncitizenship and its effect on citizenship I went to Rodbyhavn and was met with scenes that I’d never seen before in Denmark. There were refugees everywhere. Complete chaos. Adults, children, single mothers, teenagers – wary people with tired faces, most of them with just small plastic bags containing their belongings and some with nothing but the clothes they wore. Those faces. Not desperate but stern. Weary. Committed. I phoned Mikael, my husband, and said: “Listen, I’m going to offer some of them a lift.” He said: “But of course you are. Bring them home, I’ll make coffee.” [It turned out that the family she picked up were from Damascus, travelling to meet their father and husband in Helsingborg in Sweden. She drove them to her home in Solrod Strand where her husband served coffee, soda and cinnamon buns. Then he drove the family to the train station still within Denmark.] A few hours later, we got a call from their father. He was overjoyed, and grateful. That was good. But we felt bad. We had done so little, and yet it had meant so much to these six people. […] That was in September. The following month, my husband and I were contacted by the police. They were investigating us on the charge of peoplesmuggling, and wanted us to come in for questioning. […] In judicial terms, 66 This is picked up again in Chapter 5. 67 Kirsty Belton (2013) ‘Statelessness and Economic and Social Rights’, in Lanse Minkler (ed.) (2013) The State of Economics and Social Human Rights: A Global Overview, Cambridge University Press p. 223.