MADAGASCAR | The Karana The Karana biometric residency card. “With my modest salary, it will take two years to pay back the loan” he says, adding, “This has been an enormous financial investment, and I still cannot vote or travel”. The Karana express their sense of exclusion. As Nassir Hassan, a middleaged Karana woman, puts it, “People tell us to go back to Mumbai. But we don’t know Mumbai. We were born here.” There is also frustration at the indignities they have to suffer, including the many administrative roadblocks that must be navigated to keep their identity documents up-to-date. Families who have been living in Madagascar for generations are still required to obtain residency permits. Rules change regularly as new forms of identification, such as biometric identification, are introduced, and fees for 16 • UNHCR STATELESSNESS REPORT 2017 citizens here?” Aziz’s “We are here. children now also We are your neighbors. have French citizenship through When it rains it rains for him. He notes that like so many Karana all of us. When the sun who have managed to go abroad to shines it should shine study, they are unlikely to come back. on us all.” “This is sad. The Frustration with temporary residency permits, changing documentation requirements, and exorbitant fees is consistently expressed in discussions with the Karana. Several people tell UNHCR that it’s possible to be issued with genuine Malagasy passports for a fee in order to travel abroad for medical treatment, but that these documents are confiscated upon return. However, most stateless Karana are unable to afford such travel documents. Saguir Ramatoula, a softly spoken 56-year-old man, highlights an unusual predicament particular to many Karana, “I am Muslim, but without nationality I have never been able to travel to Mecca”. He adds, “If we are not Malagasy by birth then who are we? This is our home”. Aziz Asgaraly from, Mahajanga, Madagascar, helping poor Malagasy children and orphans through Karana community funded projects. To date, many Karana remain unable to access any nationality. Identity documents issued to them by the State of Madagascar, indicate their nationality to be “undefined” meaning, in practice, that they are stateless identification documents seem to rise constantly. Mahamadhoussen Chamimakatomme, a 58-year-old Karana woman, explains how she’s spent over 25 years seeking Malagasy citizenship. As part of her recent efforts, she paid a large sum for a 100 year “temporary” residency permit, only to be told soon afterwards that it was no longer valid unless it was redone with biometrics. “My residence card was thrown in the trash by a civil servant,” she laments. Ibrahim Ickbal, a 50-year-old father of two who works for a local jeweler, recently took out a loan from his employer so that he could afford to buy a new | MADAGASCAR Aziz Asgaraly, a 60-year-old retiree who serves as the President of the Association of Kodhja community in Mahajanga, reflects the views of many that they deserve citizenship based on their strong ties and contributions to the communities in which they live. “We run a weekly food distribution to children and elderly people on Sundays, and we’ve helped set up a school that provides primary and secondary education to the local community. My family has been here for five generations but I’ve only managed to acquire French citizenship, not the citizenship of my homeland. Why do we not deserve to be contributions they could make, the investments we could make…my children study in the best universities in the world, but they do not want to come back. Why would they come back to a country in which they have no rights? If they came back they would enrich the country, they would invest here, but they won’t come back. In this way we are slowly disappearing over time.” Despite the significant challenges faced by the stateless Karana in Madagascar, a recent development is cause for celebration. On 25 January 2017, the Government promulgated a new law guaranteeing the equal right of citizens, regardless of their gender, to confer nationality on their children. Now, any child born to a Malagasy mother or father will be recognized as Malagasy. UNHCR is hopeful that the government may take further steps to resolve the statelessness of the minority groups without nationality; in addition to the Karana, there are an unknown number of persons of Chinese, Comorian, and mixed descent who are stateless in Madagascar. Few can argue with the words of Bachir Ibrahim, an elderly Karana man, who simply but powerfully makes the case for the Karana to have equal access to Malagasy nationality: “We are here. We are your neighbors. When it rains it rains for all of us. When the sun shines it should shine on us all.” 2017 UNHCR STATELESSNESS REPORT • 17