Many West Africans are left stateless by laws which prevent women
passing their nationality to their children and a lack of birth
registrations, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
Nigerian
voters show off their identity cards while lining up to vote in the
neighbourhood of Isale-Eko in in a file photo.
More than 20,000 people in West Africa
have gained identity documents in the past year as part of a drive to
eradicate statelessness, yet around one million in the region still have
no nationality, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Stateless
people, sometimes referred to as legal ghosts, are not accepted as
citizens by any country, which means they are denied basic rights -
leaving many unable to work or access healthcare - and are vulnerable to
exploitation and traffickers.
Many West
Africans are left stateless by laws which prevent women passing their
nationality to their children and a lack of birth registrations, the
U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
Around 22,000 people in Ivory Coast, Benin and Mali have received identity documents or birth certificates since the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) signed a declaration in January last year that it would end statelessness.
"Thousands of people who, until now, did not have a determined nationality, will come out of the shadows," said UNHCR regional representative for West Africa Liz Ahua.
"Thanks
to the reforms currently being implemented in several states in West
Africa, these men, women and children will finally be able to obtain a
legal identity," she added.
Around one million people are thought to be stateless or at risk of statelessness in West Africa, according to the UNHCR.
Yet
Ivory Coast, where statelessness helped fuel a decade of civil wars, is
the only nation in the region to give an estimate - some 700,000 people
- of the number of individuals living in limbo, so the figure could be
far higher, experts say.
Several West African
countries have adopted action plans to tackle the issue, the UNHCR said.
Guinea, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Togo are reviewing their nationality
laws, while Senegal is working on a law to protect children from being
born stateless.
"Thousands of children in West
Africa, such as street children, are not declared at birth... they can
be easily exploited by human traffickers or forced to work," said UNHCR senior regional protection officer Emmanuelle Mitte.
There are an estimated 10 million stateless people worldwide with other big populations in Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand.
The UNHCR launched a global #ibelong campaign to end statelessness within a decade in November 2014.
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