Written answers

Thursday, 12 June 2014

Department of Justice and Equality

Determination Procedure for Statelessness

Photo of Niall CollinsNiall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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173. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will introduce clear, transparent and accessible determination procedures to allow the swift identification of stateless persons as sought by the 50 member organisations of the European Network on Statelessness; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25048/14]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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In the interests of accuracy I want to correct any erroneous impression that might be arrived at from the Deputy's question that some 50 organisations have come together to highlight the lack of a statelessness determination process in Ireland. The European Network on Statelessness is a voluntary civil society coalition that campaigns on this issue and it has called for "All European states without a functioning statelessness determination procedure to make a clear commitment during 2014 to take necessary steps to introduce one by the end 2016".

As the Deputy may be aware, based on looking at the situation in other jurisdictions, Ireland is not unusual in so far as it does not have a specific procedure for determining statelessness claims. Of the nearly eighty countries to have ratified the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons only a small fraction (including only four EU countries - Spain, Latvia, Hungary and UK) have put in place specific determination procedures for non-protection statelessness claims.

While the position adopted by other jurisdictions clearly does not determine the actions that Ireland might take in this area, some caution is nonetheless necessary to avoid a situation where Ireland, as a small country, could become a destination for stateless persons seeking access to a determination process. I have no immediate plans to introduce a formal determination procedure but will keep the matter under review, having regard also to developments in other jurisdictions and the nature of their determination procedures.

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