Statelessness in Albanian National Law 19. Article 3.2 of the Albanian law “On Foreigners” 15 defines a stateless person as “a person who is not a citizen of any state”. This definition falls short of the international law definition of a stateless person as someone who is “not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law”. 16 The failure to include the phrase “under the operation of its law” in the Albanian law is a significant gap in the definition. It means that those who under the letter of the law should have a nationality, but have been denied their nationality due to non-implementation (or discriminatory implementation) of the law, may not be considered to be stateless in the country. In the absence of a procedure to identify and protect stateless persons, the impact of this gap may be less obvious in practice, but it is a significant one nonetheless, as it can result in stateless people not being identified and being denied protection.17 The gap in the definition identified above, together with the lack of a statelessness determination procedure, prevents stateless persons from being recognised as such in Albania, and from the protection and rights this entails, such as the right to a travel document and legal residence.18 Birth Registration and the Risk of Statelessness 20. According to Albanian citizenship law, the acquisition of Albanian nationality should be automatic. 19 However, in practice, according to the law “On Civil Status” 20 birth registration is required to be carried out as a necessary precondition for the acquisition of Albanian nationality. This is a requirement that many Roma are unable to fulfil, exposing them to (the risk of) statelessness. Indeed, as evident from the majority of interviews conducted with Roma and other stakeholders (by the co-submitters under the Roma Belong project), the main cause of (risk of) statelessness of Roma relates to the challenges they face accessing civil registration in general, and birth registration in particular. Children who have a clear right to Albanian nationality are denied this because their births cannot be registered. 21. The birth registration process in Albania can be complex and difficult to access. Those who are most likely to be unable to access documentation and registration are the 15 Law no.108/2013, date 28.03.2013, “On Foreigners”. 16 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 360 U.N.T.S. 117, 1954, Article 1(1) 17 ENS, Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention: An Agenda for Change, 2017, p. 11, available here:http://www.statelessness.eu/resources/protecting-stateless-persons-arbitrary-detention- agenda-change; UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons under the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Geneva, 2014. Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/dach/wp-content/uploads/ sites/27/2017/04/CHUNHCR_Handbook-on-Protection-of-Stateless-Persons.pdf. 18 See articles 3(5), 16(3) and 38(2) Law no. 108/2013 “On Foreigners”. 19 See article 1 of the Law no. 8442/1999, date 21.01.1999, “On Some Changes in Law no. 8389, dated 5 August 1998 “On Albanian Citizenship” that provides that “Article 7 of Law no. 8389, dated 05 August 1998 “On Albanian Citizenship” is changed as follows: “Whoever is born from at least one parents of Albanian citizenship, obtains automatically the Albanian citizenship.” 20 Law no. 10129/2009, date 11.5.2009, “On Civil Status”. 5