UNITED KINGDOM
Statelessness in the UK
As with elsewhere in the world, stateless people
in the United Kingdom (UK) face challenges in
relation to their lack of nationality. As is the case
in Australia, the UK is party to the two
international
instruments
addressing
statelessness; the 1954 Convention and the 1961
Convention.lxxv
Similarly to Australia, statelessness (including
childhood statelessness) is not adequately
understood by government officials, members of
the legal profession (including decisionmakers)
and frontline service providers in the UK.lxxvi In
the report ‘Invisible Kids: Childhood Statelessness
in the UK,’ the European Network on
Statelessness
identify
similar
concerns
regarding childhood statelessness to those
identified in the Australian context, discussed
above.lxxvii
These include:
A lack of data on stateless children in the UK;
A general lack of awareness of statelessness;
DifFiculty in accessing good quality legal advice.
Key causes of childhood statelessness or risk of statelessness in the UK, include:
being born to stateless parents;
being born to a mother who cannot transmit her nationality to her child;
children in state care whose nationality is unknown; and
children whose births were not registered.lxxviii
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