Stateless persons - who is it, what is their legal status?

Stateless persons are people who do not belong to any country in the world. This category is also called stateless. It is interesting that absolutely anyone can become a stateless person due to forced or voluntary actions.

Reasons for loss of citizenship

Stateless persons are people who, from birth or at an older age, have lost their belonging to a particular state. There may be several reasons for this situation:

A person becomes stateless from birth if he was born into a family of stateless parents. At the same time, the condition must be observed that the country does not provide for automatic acquisition of citizenship at the place of birth. As for the Russian Federation, here a child of a stateless person becomes a citizen without any additional procedures.
Voluntary and conscious renunciation of citizenship to the country. After submitting an application and completing the relevant procedure (if it is provided for by law), a person submits a passport to the migration authorities and automatically becomes a stateless person. As a rule, this is a temporary situation. Usually such a procedure precedes the adoption of the citizenship of another state.
Compulsory deprivation of citizenship is possible if the security service of the state considered the presence of a person in its territory potentially dangerous. As a rule, this procedure is followed by the expulsion of a person from the country. It may also be associated with political persecution.
Detection of fictitious legal procedures. For example, it was found that a person entered into a false marriage in order to obtain a certain status in the state. Or the person is in the country on the basis of a fake ID. This entails the deprivation of citizenship.
The disappearance of the state itself as such. For example, after the collapse of the USSR, all its citizens automatically lost their citizenship. In fact, they were stateless until they replaced their Soviet passport with the identity card of the new state. It is interesting that even today there are people who have not replaced the Soviet passport with a new one.
Conscious unwillingness to have any citizenship. This may be due to religious, political or some other beliefs and motives.

Restriction of the rights of stateless persons

Stateless persons are the subject of ongoing disputes regarding legal status as well as position in the country of residence. As a rule, stateless people are treated with distrust, and therefore the legislation imposes some restrictions on their rights and freedoms, namely:

a ban on participation in elections and referendums;
the impossibility of holding positions in state institutions and in positions related to the preservation of state secrets;
a ban on military service;
inability to work as pilots of military and civil aviation, as well as captains of ships;
membership in parties and other political associations is prohibited;
restriction on movement within the state, provided that the government has adopted an appropriate order.

Rights of stateless persons

The human rights of stateless persons are generally recognized and preserved in many countries around the world. This category can be broadly described by the following points:

getting an education;
use of services of medical institutions;
realization of professional potential in industries that do not fall under state restrictions;
departure from the territory of the state (for a limited period of time).

Imperfections of the legislation of the Russian Federation in relation to stateless persons

The stay of stateless persons on the territory of the Russian Federation is somewhat complicated by the imperfection of the law. This is mainly about the bureaucratic formalities associated with the acquisition of a specific status in the country. So, as a prerequisite for obtaining the status of a temporary resident of the state, a stateless person must present a migration card. But a person with such a status simply cannot have such a document. And without the status of a temporary resident, a stateless person cannot obtain a residence permit and go through the remaining stages of acquiring citizenship. It turns out something like a bureaucratic vicious circle.

Document of a stateless person

A stateless person does not have any certificates confirming his identity. He may not have a passport or a birth certificate. However, a person must have some kind of document identifying him. One of the following options is possible:

an identity card issued in another country;
temporary residence permit;
resident card;
certificate of a stateless person;
other documents that are valid in the territory of the state.

Denial of legal status

The status of a stateless person must be determined within three months from the date of arrival on the territory of the Russian Federation. By contacting the migration service, a person may be denied registration. There can be three main reasons for this:

if employees of the migration service see a stateless person as a threat to state security or to some individuals;
if a stateless person has previously been subjected to deportation from the country in which he wants to obtain a certain status;
if the person has an open or outstanding criminal record.

Citizenship as a duty

In world legal practice, there is an ambiguous position regarding such a category as stateless persons. This is due to the fact that more and more countries are introducing a ban on the voluntary renunciation of citizenship. The exception is cases when this action is performed for the purpose of registration of belonging to another state.

Conventions adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1961 and by the Council of Europe in 1997 define citizenship as a duty of a person. The countries that have signed these documents undertake to take measures to prevent voluntary renunciation of belonging to the state without transferring to another citizenship.

Citizenship as a right

In 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted a declaration in connection with which citizenship acts precisely as a right. Every person has the right to belong to some state and cannot be deprived of it. At the same time, no one has the right to restrict a person from renouncing citizenship. For example, in the United States, the renunciation of belonging to a country is enshrined at the legislative level.

Identification of a stateless person

If there is an intention to obtain any legal status, stateless persons must, first of all, go through the identification procedure. To do this, you need to contact the FMS authorities with an appropriate application, to which the originals of all documents available to the person are attached. The following papers must be included:

original or duplicate of birth certificate;
notarized copies of parents' passports (their personal appearance is also possible);
certificate of registration on the territory of the Russian Federation (if there is none, a departure sheet or some archival documents can be provided);
detailed autobiography, handwritten in Russian;
receipt confirming the payment of state duty.

Obtaining Russian citizenship under a simplified scheme

As a rule, the legal status of a person from citizenship upon obtaining a certain statute in the Russian Federation is the same as that of any other foreigner. Nevertheless, there are a number of cases when a stateless person can obtain belonging to a country under a simplified scheme within six months:

A stateless person has one or two parents who permanently reside in the Russian Federation.
Apatride was a full-fledged citizen of the Soviet Union, whose successor Russia declares itself.
A stateless person has a birth certificate in the USSR.
The person has been married to a citizen of the Russian Federation for at least three years.

Conclusion

The legal status of stateless persons is still uncertain. Recently, there has been a trend towards the fact that governments of states are trying to reduce the number of people with stateless status. First of all, this is achieved by a ban on the voluntary renunciation of citizenship without transferring to another citizenship. And those stateless people who live on the territory of the country are obliged to apply to the relevant authorities for registration and obtaining official status within a certain period of time.