STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY documents led to it being dropped from the migration deal reached in Malta in 2015.161 However, failure of African countries to provide effective consular assistance to their citizens abroad, including issue of citizenship papers to stranded migrants in the EU, Gulf States, or elsewhere, leaves many at risk of long term detention and in some cases also statelessness. Children born abroad of parents whose status is irregular are at high risk of not having their births registered, and thus are at increased risk of statelessness, especially if they become separated from their parents. In 2015, the International Refugee Rights Initiative published a report highlighting the situation of African deportees from Israel.162 In the two and a half years before the report’s publication, approximately 10,000 African asylum seekers had left in departures classified by Israel as “voluntary”, but following severe pressure exerted by the Israeli authorities, including extended detention. The majority of those who have left Israel were returned to Sudan and Eritrea, their countries of origin. However, more than 1,500 asylum seekers believed to be from Eritrea and Sudan have also been deported from Israel to officially unidentified “third countries”, since they are not willing to return to their country of origin. Most of these are sent to Rwanda and some to Uganda. They arrive in these countries without valid documents permitting them to stay as legal residents, and no procedure is in place to determine their status, including a possible claim to asylum. They are housed for a few days, but then abandoned. In the absence of any legal status where they now are, these deportees often set off once again on the dangerous road to try to enter the European Union states. The Rwandan government denies these reports.163 Arbitrary deprivation Regular UN resolutions have confirmed that “arbitrary deprivation of nationality, especially on discriminatory grounds such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status, including disability, is a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.164 The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights has also condemned deprivation of nationality as a violation of Article 5 of the African Charter, affirming the right to legal status.165 In African states, it is far more common for deprivation to take the form of annulment or non-renewal of documents, retrospectively denying that nationality was ever obtained, rather than implementation of the formal processes for deprivation under the law (which are often restricted to naturalised citizens). By withdrawing recognition of citizenship that a person has previously held from birth, the government will leave that person stateless unless they are already in possession of another nationality. Tanzania has attempted to strip troublesome individuals of their citizenship several times. In 2001, the government declared that four individuals were not citizens, though giving them the option of applying for naturalisation; the move was interpreted as reprisal for independent media criticism of political and economic developments in Tanzania.166 In 2018, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights found 161 Matthew Holehouse, “EU drops plan to give African migrants deportation papers”, The Telegraph (London), 11 November 2015. For a West African case study see, Florian Trauner and Stephanie Deimel, “The Impact of EU Migration Policies on African Countries: The Case of Mali”, International Migration, Vol. 51, No. 4, 2013. 162 “I was left with nothing”: “Voluntary” departures of asylum seekers from Israel to Rwanda and Uganda, International Refugee Rights Initiative, September 2015. 163 Rwanda government focal point on statelessness, “Comments on the Draft Study on Citizenship and Statelessness in EAC”, April 2018. 164 UN Human Rights Council biannual resolutions on “Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality”, the most recent adopted on 24 June 2016, A/HRC/32/L.8. 165 See African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, The Right to Nationality in Africa, 2014. 166 “Tanzania drops envoy to Nigeria over citizenship”, The Guardian, Dar es Salaam, 5 February 2001. The four were Timothy Bandora (the country’s then High Commissioner to Nigeria); Jenerali Ulimwengu (a leading publisher, journalist, media proprietor and chief executive of Habari Media Limited and also a former Tanzanian diplomat and member of parliament, who was born and 44 UNHCR / September 2018