Conquer Club

An Introduction to Statelessness

Having a nationality is something so natural that people rarely stop to think about what life would be like without it. But at least 10 million people worldwide have no nationality. That is the same as the combined populations of Norway and Denmark. Moreover, most of these 10 million people are stateless by no fault of their own. Statelessness – not having a nationality – occurs because of discrimination against certain groups; redrawing of borders; and gaps in nationality laws.

The constant in all of this is that someone without a nationality cannot live the same life as someone with a nationality:

Try to get an ID card if you have no nationality;
Try opening a bank account without an ID card;
Try to board a flight without a passport;
Try to enrol in university without proof of nationality.

These things are impossible for stateless people to do in a way that is safe and dignified.

mrswdk wrote:I remember seeing a story about a man from Bahrain who traveled to the UK to seek asylum. His Bahrain citizenship was revoked while he was in the UK, so when the UK rejected him and sent him back to Bahrain he was refused entry to Bahrain and sent back to the UK. He now spends his life being tossed backwards and forwards between the UK and Bahrain like a frisbee.

"More Hong Kong expats seeking Chinese citizenship, minorities left out in the cold"

...

In a quirk of bureaucracy, this quest has unexpectedly turned Sudanese trader Faisal Abbasher into a stateless person.

The 61-year-old has long considered Hong Kong his home, having lived here for nearly three decades. He first arrived in 1982, later married a Filipino woman and gained permanent residency shortly after 1997.

He runs three companies selling electronics, tyres and auto spare parts to Africa, and would frequently visit the mainland to meet suppliers. In fact, he was so busy developing the business he had not seen his family in Sudan - including four sisters and one brother - since 1990.

In 2008, he applied to be naturalised as a Chinese national but was rejected the following year. Meantime, however, the paper work to renounce his Sudanese citizenship had gone through.

As a result, he became stateless, even though he held a Hong Kong permanent ID.

"This is unfair, I feel paralysed," says Abbasher, who speaks conversational Cantonese. "I cannot go to China, I cannot go back to Sudan, I cannot go anywhere in the world except Macau.

"I have no feeling for any state other than Hong Kong."

He has lost business in the past five years, he says, because he hasn't been able to travel to meet customers and suppliers, and often has to pay deposits of up to US$40,000 to place orders without having inspected the products.

No reason was given for the rejection, so Abbasher doesn't know what to do; but he has a sneaking suspicion about why his application failed.

"I feel if I had not been black, the decision would have been different," he says.

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According to the latest census in 2011, more than 6 per cent of the population is non-Chinese. About half the number are foreign domestic helpers, who were denied eligibility for permanent residency following a landmark ruling by the Court of Final Appeal last year. That leaves more than 200,000 non-Chinese residents who are potentially eligible to be naturalised.

Most applications come from Pakistani, Indonesian and Indian nationals, and informal data suggests they have a success rate above 65 per cent.

However, Immigration Department gatekeepers are getting tougher on who they let through, says Butt, who specialises in naturalisation for ethnic minorities. "They never give reasons but traffic offence history, reliance on CSSA [welfare], and having a criminal record can all mess up your application."

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For Abbasher, the impact of rejection was particularly painful when his mother passed away in Sudan last month.

As the eldest son in his family, it is the tradition in Sudan for him to give her a burial. But being stateless means "I cannot go to bury my own mother", he says.

"I wish I could live like a normal person; this is like prison."