No Country, no ID, no work, no rights

The country marked Human Rights Day yesterday, but for some people who are stateless in SA there was little to celebrate.

These people who are not recognised as a national by any state are invisible. They do not exist before the State.

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) started a Statelessness Project last March, devoted to providing legal assistance to people who are not recognised as a national in any country. Jessica George, a legal counsellor at LHR who is instrumental in this project, said the stateless people lived undocumented and their children could not access documentation either.

“Most often, stateless persons and their children are trapped in a life of poverty,” George said.

Worst of all, listening to their stories, there seems to be little sympathy from the authorities for these people.

The Department of Home Affairs was asked to comment on the issues regarding stateless people, but had not responded by late on Tuesday.
  
Excerpt by Jessica George:
Imagine for a moment that you are stateless – without nationality. Some actually advocate for a stateless society: a world undivided by territorial boundaries and unhindered by bureaucratic red- tape. Some see this as the ultimate freedom. But in the reality of our times, the life of a stateless person is a nightmare.

A stateless person is someone who does not meet any State’s legal requirements for citizenship; or who is a citizen under the law, but cannot prove their citizenship or is denied citizenship by a State.

Stateless persons lack a sense of belonging and are excluded from a national community. But they also suffer endless practical barriers to improving their lives. Planning a future becomes hopeless.

If stateless, you are unlikely to have a birth certificate – which means you cannot get an ID – so few jobs are open to you. You live a hand-to-mouth existence. You cannot write matric or go to university. You cannot open a bank account, obtain a loan, buy property. You cannot register your marriage or your children’s births. You cannot vote. You cannot get a passport. If you leave your country of birth, you cannot travel or immigrate legally and you must border-jump to return. You have no consulate. You cannot be deported because no country recognises you. You may be detained indefinitely. Only your “human” rights can protect you.
Such rights offer weak protection in today’s world without nationality.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that at least 12 million people are stateless worldwide. In Africa, statelessness is increasing. A number of post-independence constitutions, citizenship laws and later amendments included discriminatory provisions which added racial requirements; prohibited dual nationality; prevented women from passing citizenship to their children; and in some cases made it impossible for African migrants who came during colonisation, and their descendants, to claim citizenship. These legal provisions have made many people stateless.

Further, as African national economies develop, access to wealth, government services and personal advancement become increasingly dependent on administrative systems and documentation. Those who are not documented as citizens are unable to access the most fundamental human rights.

Stateless persons in SA fall into two main categories: those born in SA and those born abroad.

For those born here, Department of Home Affairs’ offices nationwide have become a battleground for access to citizenship. While birth on the territory alone does not automatically confer citizenship, the late registration of birth process is being treated as an application for citizenship.

Suspicions that foreigners are using this process to access citizenship are resulting in ever stricter procedures.

Some unregistered adult South Africans simply cannot convince Home Affairs of their birth on the territory – due to migrant pasts; mixed nationality families; and/or deceased parents. Those who live in border regions face even more suspicion, despite their right to citizenship under the law.

The unintended consequence is that true South Africans are being deprived of their citizenship. Some are turned away as soon as they state that they have lived abroad.

As for those born abroad, undocumented migrants in South Africa may be stateless due to conflict of laws, among other reasons. Changes to Zimbabwean citizenship laws in 2001 resulted in an estimated over 100,000 persons of foreign descent losing their citizenship. Critics say this was a political move to disenfranchise those with questionable allegiances – a tactic also used in other African nations.

Unfortunately, Malawi and Zambia require citizens born abroad to claim citizenship by age 22. As a result, many in Zimbabwe became stateless.
While South Africa has a well-established system to recognise and protect refugees, no such system exists to protect stateless persons.

Every country has the right to regulate immigration and to determine who is a citizen. But this right cannot exist to the exclusion of fundamental human rights. The Constitution may protect such rights, but in practice these rights are meaningless without nationality.

The new SA should take every measure to reduce statelessness. This past year, the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, would be an apt time to take up this challenge. To look the other way will only threaten the human rights framework that South Africans have fought so hard to achieve.

• This article first appeared in Pretoria News on 22 March 2012