their ‘own country’ for the purposes of Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) and thus have a right to return and, consequently, remain there. We
submit that, on this basis, such persons should be granted permanent residence - a status the
Minister for Justice and Equality is empowered to grant pursuant to Section 4(1) of the
Immigration Act 2004, which provides that “(…) an immigration officer may, on behalf of the
Minister, give to a non-national a document, or place on his or her passport or other equivalent
document an inscription, authorising the non-national to land or be in the State”. However, in
such circumstances, conferral (or restoration) of nationality may be even more consistent with
Article 12(4) ICCPR.
14. On the issue of statelessness determination, the current Minister for Justice and Equality, Ms
Frances Fitzgerald TD, stated in June 2014 in answer to a Parliamentary Question that:
“Ireland is not unusual in so far as it does not have a specific procedure for determining
statelessness claims. Of the nearly eighty countries to have ratified the 1954 Convention
Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons only a small fraction (including only four EU
countries - Spain, Latvia, Hungary and UK) have put in place specific determination procedures
for non-protection statelessness claims.
While the position adopted by other jurisdictions clearly does not determine the actions that
Ireland might take in this area, some caution is nonetheless necessary to avoid a situation
where Ireland, as a small country, could become a destination for stateless persons seeking
access to a determination process. I have no immediate plans to introduce a formal
determination procedure but will keep the matter under review, having regard also to
developments in other jurisdictions and the nature of their determination procedures”.xii
15. However, UNHCR Ireland has since clarified that while “(I)ntroducing a statelessness
determination procedure would enable stateless people to pursue a durable solution to their
case by acquiring or reacquiring the nationality of their country of former habitual residence
or by regularising their situation in Ireland, allowing them to access their rights under the 1954
Convention” and while “the resolution of their cases would enable them to contribute fully to
the communities in which they live and reduce the burden on the State”, the “evidence from
other jurisdictions that have introduced statelessness determination procedures is that they
have not led to an increase in the stateless populations of those countries, nor have they
produced a pull factor”.xiii
16. Several pieces of Irish legislation, some of which by way of implementation of EU law, do refer
to ‘stateless persons’:
Section 2 of the Refugee Act 1996 includes those ‘not having a nationality’ by reference
to their place of former habitual residence for the purpose of the determination of an
application for refugee status.
Regulation 2 of the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006,
giving effect to the Qualification Directive 2004/83/EC, contains reference to the former
habitual residence of stateless persons for the purpose of the determination of
5