29th January 2026 SUBJECT: Submission to the call for input to the 2026 report of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking on the rights of migrant, refugee, asylum-seeking and stateless children who are victims of trafficking or at risk of trafficking Dear Special Rapporteur, Ms. Siobhán Mullally, The European Network on Statelessness 1 (‘ENS’) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the upcoming report on trafficking to the Human Rights Council, and the decision to include a focus on child trafficking and the rights of stateless children. This submission responds to a call for input on the forms and manifestations of trafficking amongst stateless children. It focuses on the critical but often overlooked role of statelessness as a root cause of trafficking, and on the concerns and challenges of identifying and protecting stateless children with increased vulnerability when they have been victims of trafficking. 1. Statelessness in Europe A stateless person is a person “not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”. 2 For the more than 10 million stateless people worldwide and over half a million in Europe, this can mean the denial of basic rights most people take for granted. In Europe, statelessness affects both in situ populations (including Romani communities and those affected by the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia), 3 and migrants and refugees who arrive already stateless in Europe or become stateless during displacement due to persecution, discriminatory nationality laws, and other factors often linked with forced migration. Yet many European States lack mechanisms to identify or protect stateless people, such as statelessness determination procedures (SDPs) leading to protection. This results in incorrect or imputed nationality being recorded, prolonged use of “unknown” or “undetermined” nationality in administrative systems which prevents children from accessing legal safeguards to prevent or reduce statelessness, and increased risks of unlawful detention, destitution, abuse, and trafficking due to the lack of regularisation pathways for stateless people. Children are especially affected as many do not know they are stateless, nor do their carers, and lack of accurate identification or timely birth registration can perpetuate the cycle of exclusion. The 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, jointly interpreted with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights instruments, impose clear legal obligations to protect stateless children and prevent statelessness. 2. Statelessness as a root cause of trafficking Statelessness can significantly heighten vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation. The impact of being stateless, including being excluded from basic rights and services, facing barriers to The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) is a civil society alliance of NGOs, lawyers, persons with lived experience, academics, and other independent experts committed to addressing statelessness in Europe through law and policy development, awareness-raising, and capacity-building. It currently has over 180 members in 41 European countries. ENS provides expert advice and support to a range of stakeholders, including governments. 2 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Article 1(1). 3 https://www.statelessness.eu/issues/stateless-minorities. 1