Successful case of statelessness

Statelessness means that a human being has no right to a nationality of any country.  This means that no country will take care of you, no foreign Embassy will extend its help and there is nowhere in the world where you can legally reside.

We have been yet again, successful with a stateless application.  Our client is a Palestinian whose parents come from Gaza Strip and who was born and lived in Qatar.  He had an Egyptian travel document and a Qatari residence permit both of which have expired.  He instructed another firm of solicitors before he instructed us and they asserted that he was stateless.  When we took over the case we have realised that there was an urgent need for a country expert response to respond to the questions “Can our client return to Qatar?”, “Can he obtain an Egyptian travel document” and even if “Yes, will that facilitate his return to Qatar and can he ever return to Gaza”?

We asserted that our client was a stateless person according to the definition of Article 1(1) of the 1954 United Nations Convention relating to the status of a stateless person.  The expert report demonstrated that the changes of the regime in Egypt did not result in any change to the Egyptian Regulations governing the entry of Palestinians to Egypt en route to the Gaza Strip and that with regard to the West Bank, the entry to the West Bank from Jordan is strictly controlled by the Israelis and therefore Palestinians from the occupied territories are not permitted to enter Israel.

With regard to the situation of Palestinian refugees in Egypt the report explained that the official Egyptian attitude towards Palestinians plays a significant role in any attempt of a Palestinian to travel to the Gaza Strip via Egypt, which is the only way to travel to the territory. The report confirmed that our client could not return to Qatar and could only obtain residence in Qatar if he was to secure local employment.  Although our client was born there and spent most of his life there he has no special rights of privileges and he was in the same position as any non-Qatari.  It also confirmed that he can renew his Egyptian travel document but that will not facilitate his return to Qatar and he would not be able to obtain a Palestinian passport in order to ever return to Gaza.

On the basis of our submissions and the excellent country expert report our client was granted stateless leave for 30 months.

If you need advice or guidance on a stateless person case, please get in touch and her and her team will assist with your application, or you have a general query please do not hesitate to call us on 020 7267 4133.