3. Recommendations: how to ensure access to protection for stateless refugees from Ukraine The European Commission should: • • Require EU Member States to implement the Temporary Protection Directive in an inclusive way in line with international and EU law principles of non-discrimination and upholding the rights of stateless persons Amend the Operational guidelines for the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive to: o Explain who is affected by statelessness in Ukraine and their legal status, urging Member States to consider this when assessing links to Ukraine o Clarify that ‘equivalent national protection’ under Article 2(1)(b) of the Council Decision includes protection as a stateless person under the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons 1954 o Encourage Member States to extend temporary protection to all stateless/persons at risk of statelessness fleeing Ukraine who are unable to return for the same reasons as other Ukrainians, and who, by definition, do not have any (other) country to which to return o Introduce flexibility in the requirement to prove prior residence in Ukraine through documentary evidence, recognising the inherent difficulty in proving statelessness, and the documentation challenges faced by stateless persons o Require information about statelessness to be reported in the EU Migration Preparedness & Crisis Blueprint EU Member States should: • Extend temporary protection to all stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness fleeing Ukraine, ‘using their margin of appreciation in the most humanitarian way’ under the Operational guidelines, and so upholding their international law obligations (inter alia under the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1951 Geneva Convention, 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, and 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness) All European States should: • • • Determine who is stateless on their territory and grant them the protection enshrined in the 1954 Convention, including through early identification of (initial indications of) statelessness and referral to appropriate procedures to determine statelessness Guarantee every child’s right to birth registration, legal identity, and a nationality to prevent future cases of statelessness arising because of the conflict and facilitate access to child-rights-based procedures for the determination and/or acquisition of nationality Remove barriers to protection under national mechanisms for Ukrainian refugees for all stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness from Ukraine and facilitate both their freedom of movement and right to return to Ukraine London, United Kingdom Media: +44 7522 525673 info@statelessness.eu www.statelessness.eu The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) is a civil society alliance of over 170 organisations and individuals working to address statelessness in 41 European countries.