This webinar will focus on how frontline refugee responders can identify (risk of) statelessness during the asylum procedure, tools for responding to, recording and referring cases of statelessness, and offer an introduction to what needs to change at the policy and operational level.

The failure to identify statelessness within the context of forced migration can put people at risk and cause serious human rights violations. People may have experienced persecution or have been unable to avail themselves of state protection because of their statelessness, meaning identifying statelessness is critical to determining international protection needs.

Failure to identify statelessness can also negatively impact proper determination of the refugee claim, as well as lead to difficulties for stateless persons to access family reunification and naturalization, and where their international protection claim is not accepted, could result in them being trapped in limbo and subject to arbitrary and protracted detention with no prospect of removal as no state recognizes them as a national.

These risks must be addressed through improved guidance on identifying the risk of statelessness and clear referral systems between asylum and statelessness determination procedures.

Agenda

• 13:00-13:05 Welcome
• 13:05-13:20 Presentation by Zoe Gardner – Policy & Research Manager, ENS. ENS will present on its newly-published briefing tool on asylum registration and screening
• 13:20-13:35 Presentation by Sebastien Revoy, EUAA. An overview of EUAA’s work in supporting EU Member States with asylum registration, and an introduction to using its guidance to identify and address statelessness.
• 13:35-13:45 Q&A & closing remarks