Country briefing: Statelessness and refugees in Greece WHY IS STATELESSNESS RELEVANT TO THE REFUGEE RESPONSE IN GREECE? Although reliable data on statelessness among refugee arrivals in Greece is limited5, according to actors on the ground, populations affected by statelessness are present among arrivals. The most commonly encountered stateless people include Bidoon from Kuwait, stateless Kurds, Palestinians, as well as individuals affected by nationality problems from Pakistan and Afghanistan. A small number of Rohingya from Myanmar have also been identified. Some of the key statelessness-related challenges emerging from our research in the Greek context are highlighted below. Arrival & Registration • • • • • • Nationality problems are not being accurately identified and recorded on arrival. Stateless people report reluctance to convey their nationality problems to authorities. There is a general lack of awareness of the implications of statelessness and the rights and protections afforded to stateless people under international law. The failure to identify or record statelessness on arrival, leads to registration with imputed nationality or ‘unknown’ nationality, which can later be difficult to correct. It is unclear on what basis and with what motivation nationality is being imputed, practice varies across different agencies, and there is a lack of procedural clarity. Stateless women, men and children are potentially at greater risk of exploitation on their journeys due to their lack of documentation and legal status. Determination of international protection status • • • A lack of clarity about someone’s nationality can impact on the assessment of credibility. Individuals report concerns that their statelessness could negatively impact their asylum claim and/or that referrals made on the basis of country of origin/former residence mean they might not even have the opportunity to explain their statelessness to the Greek Asylum Service (e.g. those from Pakistan). Concerning the fast track procedure, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants highlighted in 2017 that the provisions on exceptional derogation measures for people applying for asylum at the border raise “serious concerns over due process guarantees”. In 2018, the European Ombudsman found that “there are genuine concerns about the quality of the admissibility interviews as well as about the procedural fairness of how they are conducted.” In February 2019, FRA noted that “almost three years of experience [of processing asylum claims in facilities at borders] in Greece shows, [that] this approach creates fundamental rights challenges that appear almost unsurmountable.”6 The additional pressure on the Asylum Service to accelerate the asylum procedure may undermine the quality of first instance decisions.7 The Greek Asylum Service does not publish data disaggregated by ‘stateless’ status. Asylum Information Database, Country Report: Greece (2018), pp. 15 7 Asylum Information Database, Country Report: Greece (2018), pp. 25 5 6 2