Ibrahim Suzo is trapped in legal limbo in Malta, a failed asylum seeker who cannot be deported because, officially, he has no nationality.
He has spent two years in detention and met twice with officials from Sierra Leone, his country of birth, in an attempt to confirm his nationality. On both occasions they refused to recognise him as a national.
Mr Suzo’s story forms part of a report – ‘Protecting stateless persons from arbitrary detention in Malta’ – published last week by Aditus Foundation and the European Network on Statelessness. It warns that the widespread use of administrative detention is having a severe impact on stateless people.
“The report confirms the urgency for Malta to revise its detention regime,” said Aditus director Neil Falzon. “It also stresses that the absence of any procedure to identify stateless persons results, in many cases, in their unlawful detention and their lack of social and legal protection.”
Detention of stateless persons is in violation of the European Convention and EU law
Stateless people – those not recognised as a citizen by any State – have been acknowledged by the European Court of Human Rights as being at severe risk of waiting for years without any authority taking an interest in their fate. Moreover, the main responsibility for people who do not qualify for protection lies with their countries of origin, which puts stateless people at an additional risk of detention while awaiting return.
The report notes that, since Malta is not party to the 1954 UN convention on statelessness, there are no procedures in place to identify stateless people and no dedicated institution which they can approach.
“Given that an aspect of the detention regime is premised on the return of prohibited immigrants and that it is almost impossible to return a stateless person to his country of residence, it would be correct to conclude that this form of detention of stateless persons is not only in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights but also of EU law, particularly the Return Directive,” the authors state.
While the actual number of stateless people in Malta is considered negligible, there are a large number who are at risk of statelessness under citizenship laws. A child born of a Maltese father and a non-Maltese mother but is not recognised by the father, for example, does not have access to nationality. The report notes optimistically that the government is looking into the provisions of the 1954 convention with a view to incorporating them into Maltese law.
There is a fear, however, that accession might create a strain on the system by encouraging failed asylum seekers to apply for a stateless determination in the hope of being granted residence permits or to delay returns. The report calls for the authorities to establish a procedure to identify and recognise stateless people and ensure they have access to protection as well as an internal assessment of scenarios where Maltese law gives rise to the risk of statelessness.
Moreover, it calls for a shift from automatic detention towards a system based on individual assessments, in line with Malta’s human rights obligations.