ALBANIA ALBANIA “I WANT TO HAVE AN IDENTITY, NOT TO BE OBLIGED TO BEG IN THE STREETS TO FEED MY KIDS, BUT TO WORK AND EARN MY MONEY WITH DIGNITY.” ANILA, 26, TIRANA The majority of people who are stateless or at risk of statelessness in Albania are either part of the country’s Roma communities, Egyptian communities, or the children of Albanian returnees. Albania is party to both the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions. The Law on Albanian Citizenship , introduced in 1998, gives Albania some of the strongest legal protection mechanisms against statelessness in the region. While these legal frameworks are an important step in the right direction, gaps still remain between law and practice. The main obstacles for stateless people trying to establish Albanian nationality are the costly and lengthy administrative and judicial processes that prevent them from accessing birth registration. These processes are particularly burdensome on minority communities that already have incredibly limited resources. To tackle these issues, UNHCR has partnered with UNICEF on a joint strategy on every child’s right to a nationality in Albania in 2017 and 2018. Today, relevant authorities, UNHCR and UNICEF are working together on further legal reform and the improvement of the civil registration process, reducing the remaining barriers to obtaining a legal identity and observing the respect of basic human rights. To that end, Albania passed a new Law on Child Protection in January 2017, bringing new opportunities to enhance access to civil registration for children at risk of statelessness. Since 2016, Albania’s Civil Status Office and UNHCR have been working together on the implementation of an online application, which is designed to enable civil registrars to record those cases whose registration is not possible due to 10 • ENDING STATELESSNESS IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE legal or administrative barriers, including lack of required evidence, and to solve simple administrative cases. Anila was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1991 to parents from the Albanian Egyptian community. Anila’s parents obtained false documents in Germany, and, as a consequence, Anila’s registration at birth was also falsified. Anila and her parents returned to Tirana later that year. Her parents divorced, and then abandoned Anila, leaving her to be taken care of by her aunt. When Anila was 13, her aunt died. She survived by taking shelter at a religious organization in Tirana. Now completely on her own, Anila had never been registered with the Albanian Civil Status Office, and was left to try to make her place in the world without any legal identity or documentation. Anila is now 26. She and her partner have three children. She cannot obtain legal, stable employment, travel, or marry the father of her children. She is left to beg on the streets of Tirana. Anila was unable to give birth to her children in hospital, due to her lack of documentation, and, as a result, her children are stateless as well, unable to be registered in kindergarten and primary school. Anila’s case, however, is no longer hopeless. With the assistance of one of UNHCR’s civil society partners, she is currently in the process of obtaining Albanian citizenship for her and her children, giving all of them the chance to live their lives with dignity. ENDING STATELESSNESS IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE • 11