In accordance with Action 6, Grant protection status to stateless migrants and facilitate their naturalization, on 14 December, the government of Ukraine adopted an amendment to the citizenship law that allows recognized stateless people to apply for facilitated naturalization after three instead of seven years as was previously the case. As of 13 December, 696 people had applied for recognition as stateless under the country’s statelessness determination procedure and, as of 14 December, 38 has been granted statelessness status. On 25 November, Thailand issued an Order which, once Evelina Okhalska, the first stateless person recognized in Odeska region of Ukraine received her implemented, will allow temporary residence permit on 10 December 2021. © State Migration Service, Kyiv registered stateless people who had migrated to Thailand before 18 January 2005 to On 8 December and in line with its pledge made at apply for legal immigration and permanent residency the 2019 High-Level Segment on Statelessness, the status. Further, the Order provides that registered Parliament of the Republic of Armenia adopted the stateless persons who migrated to Thailand after 18 long-awaited amendments to the Citizenship Law January 2005 are able to apply for legal immigration which will allow stateless refugees from Azerbaijan and temporary stay status. The Order and the to benefit from a simplified naturalization process underlying Cabinet Resolution will be implemented until the end of 2023. after supporting Regulations are officially introduced, which is expected to take place in February 2022. In November, the Government of Georgia introduced amendments to a governmental decree that allows In November, the new Law on Aliens No. 79/2021 applicants for statelessness status to access in Albania entered into force. The Law includes emergency healthcare. This step is in line with one a provision for the establishment of a stateless of the Government’s pledges submitted at the 2019 determination procedure through an Instruction High-Level Segment on Statelessness. issued by the Minister of Interior. The inclusion of a provision on SDP is in line with one of the pledges On 2 December in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the made by Albania at the 2019 High-Level Segment National Commission for Eligibility to Stateless on Statelessness. UNHCR and the NGO Tirana Legal Person Status held its first session, after being Aid Society are providing technical assistance to the created in September 2020. The commission Ministry of Interior in drafting the Instruction. examined three cases of persons applying for statelessness status and recommended statelessness status for one of the applicants. In total, 48 cases have thus far been registered. UNHCR > The Campaign to End Statelessness | October – December 2021 Update 8