Statelessness Determination Procedures
It is proposed here to place the relevant statelessness determination/verification
body within this Directorate, ie, the department responsible for citizenship and
naturalisation. This department is the most appropriate body, especially for
individuals who may have been in Nigeria for generations, such as an in situ
population. 104 Admittedly, ‘best practice’ states like France, Moldova and
Paraguay may have agencies for statelessness determination that are separate from
those that grant nationality, 105 but this is by no means required. In fact, according
to UNHCR, a state is at liberty to locate an SDP within its immigration authorities,
or within the body responsible for nationality issues (eg naturalisation applications
or verification of nationality requests). 106 UNHCR has advised that locating an
SDP within the latter type of body is particularly appropriate where the individuals
concerned are likely to be longstanding residents of the state. 107
With regards to the precise location of the SDP within the Ministry of Interior,
Nigeria may choose a central SDP within the Ministry, or decentralise SDP as
appropriate. One should bear in mind, however, that Nigeria is a federal state with
36 component states and 774 Local Governments Areas (‘LGA’), in addition to
its many Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (‘MDA’).
Therefore, as recommended above, Nigeria may want to ensure that its SDP allows
for referrals of cases from the component states, LGA, and MDA to the central
body for determination of statelessness. The SDP should also allow for crossreferrals between refugee determination procedures and statelessness
determination procedures: the NCFRMI can refer potential statelessness cases
from its refugee procedure to the statelessness procedure, and vice versa.
C
Proposed Access to Procedure
As noted in the previous section, Nigeria has an existing citizenship acquisition
procedure through a Directorate at the Ministry of Interior, which would be the
appropriate department to locate an SDP. The Ministry of Interior has launched an
104 Citizenship
Overview’,
Ministry
of
Interior
(Web
Page)
<https://ecitibiz.interior.gov.ng/citizenship/overview>. In general, this department is
responsible for any person who may be entitled to Nigerian nationality by confirmation,
naturalisation, registration or may be entitled to a residence permit.
105 In France, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (‘OFPRA’)
is responsible for refugee and statelessness matters, while the local Préfectures (towns) are
responsible for the granting of French nationality and residence permits. OFPRA and the
Préfectures are both departments of the French Ministry of Interior. For more information,
see ‘Office français de protection des réfugiés et apatrides’ [French office for the protection
of refugees and stateless persons], OFPRA (Web Page) <https://www.ofpra.gouv.fr/> and
‘Préfectures’ [Prefectures], Minstere de L’Interieur [Ministry of Interior] (Web Page)
<https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Le-ministere/Prefectures>. In Moldova, the Bureau for
Migration and Asylum within the Ministry of Internal Affairs is responsible for statelessness
and refugee matters, see ‘Bureau for Migration and Asylum’, Ministry of Internal Affairs
(Web Page) <http://bma.gov.md/en>; while the agency responsible for Moldovan nationality
and residence permits is the Public Services Agency, see ‘Services’, Public Services Agency
(Web Page) <http://www.asp.gov.md/node/1376>. In Paraguay, ‘the National Constitution
explicitly recognised the Judicial Power as the institution responsible for citizenship,
considering the legal conditions for its acquisition and loss, together with the content of rights
for citizens (article 154)’: Elisa Brey, Report on Citizenship Law: Paraguay (Technical
Report March 2016) 9. CONARE is responsible for statelessness and asylum issues in
Paraguay. See Ley N° 6.149 Proteccion y facildades para la naturalizacion de las personas
apatridas [Law No. 6, 149 on Protection and Facilities for the Naturalization of Stateless
Persons 2018] (Paraguay) arts 31–32 [tr author] (‘Paraguay Statelessness Law’).
106 Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons (n 11) 27 [65].
107 ibid 26 [59], 27 [65].
104