HELPING TO SHAPE THE EU RESPONSE TO STATELESSNESS ADDRESSING STATELESSNESS IN EUROPE’S REFUGEE REPOSNSE A NETWORK OF OVER 140 MEMEBRS We continue to work with key actors at the EU level through our advocacy channels and relationships we have developed. A key objective is for statelessness to be better mainstreamed and addressed in new instruments. Statelessness is an overlooked and often invisible issue playing out in the context of refugee arrivals to Europe every day. Yet, our joint #StatelessJourneys project with ISI shows that stateless refugees are more likely to experience discrimination and adverse treatment due to the failure of states to properly identify or take their nationality problems into account. During 2018 we welcomed ten new members to our network, four of which are community-led organisations working on statelessness. This trend continues into 2019, strengthening our ability to collaborate with individuals and groups affected by statelessness. In May the European Parliament approved the Resolution on the Protection of Children in Migration, which, among other things, calls on Member States to ensure that childhood statelessness is adequately addressed in national laws. We were pleased that our strong collaboration with the Intergroup on Children’s Rights on our #StatelessKids campaign helped result in childhood statelessness being included in the Resolution. In a new non-legislative resolution adopted in November, Members of the European Parliament called on the Commission to develop a directive on minimum standards for minorities in the EU to ensure their rights are respected and to stop discrimination of member states against minorities. The resolution includes a call on EU countries to address the marginalisation of Roma people in Europe, by ending statelessness and guaranteeing that they fully retain their fundamental human rights. In 2018 we have successfully carried out initial research, and laid the foundations to move into the next phase of our project focused on advocacy and knowledge-transfer, to build the capacity of communities, civil society, national and regional actors to address the gaps and challenges identified. To support this work we’ve successfully launched a new #StatelessJourneys website (https:// statelessjourneys.org) providing a series of new tools to secure the protection of stateless refugees and migrants, and to prevent new cases of statelessness arising in Europe. In October 2018 we organised our fifth Annual General Conference, attended by 48 members, during which we consulted on our new strategic plan and provided training workshops. The conference was followed by a two-day #RomaBelong workshop on statelessness and access to citizenship rights. A core group of #RomaBelong project partners and ENS members were joined by Roma-led organisations as well as stakeholders from UNHCR, OSCE, the EU and the Council of Europe. In July we helped facilitate a UNHCR and European Migration Network roundtable bringing together government representatives to assess progress and galvanise action in implementing the 2015 European Council Conclusions on Statelessness. Only 9 European States have dedicated legal frameworks in place to determine statelessness and grant stateless people protection. Syrian Kurdish refugees take ferry to Athens – The fact that a refugee is also stateless is often critical when assessing their asylum claim and ensuring that their particular protection needs are met. Our #StatelessJourneys work in Greece, Serbia, the Netherlands and across the continent is addressing current gaps in Europe’s refugee response (Photo: © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell)