Over a third of the 10 million stateless people across the world are children, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday at the launch of a global campaign aimed at eradicating statelessness in 10 years' time.

"Statelessness is inhuman. We believe it is time to end this injustice," said UN refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie and more than 20 celebrities and world opinion leaders in an open letter.

"Statelessness can mean a life without education, medical care or legal employment... a life without the ability to move freely," says the letter.

At least 10 million people worldwide have no nationality and no access to education, healthcare and job opportunities, according to the UN refugee agency.

Myanmar has the largest stateless population with more than one million from the Rohingya Muslim minority due to ethnic, religious and other reasons.

It is followed by the Ivory Coast, Thailand, Latvia, Estonia and the Dominican Republic, Guterres said in a press conference at the UN Geneva headquarters Monday.

A total of 27 countries do not allow women to pass their nationality on to their children on an equal basis with men, said Guterres.

"This goal to eradicate statelessness in 10 years’ time is an ambitious one, but there are reasons for us to believe that it is a possible one," he added, saying this objective was a matter of national security and stability for countries.

In the past 10 years, 4 million stateless people have acquired a nationality, according to the UNHCR.

Guterres also warned that new instances of statelessness could emerge with the crisis in Iraq and Syria, namely citing the overwhelming number of Syrian refugees as one of the more obvious potential risks.

Over 3 million Syrian people are registered as refugees in neighboring countries and more than 6.5 million people are internally displaced inside Syria, according to the UN.
More than 50,000 children have been born in Syrian refugee camps in neighboring countries since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

Most of the children are entitled to the Syrian nationality, according to the report but they face difficulties in obtaining a civil birth registration.

"We are making a big effort in Lebanon and Jordan to improve the conditions of [obtaining] birth registration," said Guterres. "Seventy percent of the newborn Syrian refugees in the neighboring countries have not yet been registered, they do not have legal birth certificates."

With regards to Palestine under Israeli occupation, Guterres said: "We are not mentioning Palestinians in these statistics because it is a complex situation."

PHOTO CAPTION

Homeless children sit amid rubble in Abidjan's Attecoube neighborhood after authorities destroyed homes deemed susceptible to landslides

Source: AA