Sarajevo, Nov 7 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) could eradicate statelessness by 2022, two years earlier than planned, said Lucie Gagne, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative in BiH.
According to the United Nations, stateless persons are those who are not recognized as nationals by any state under its law, which prevents them from equally participating in social life and enjoying a series of human rights such as health care, education, or marriage, Xinhua news agency reported.
UNHCR started a global Ibelong Campaign in 2014, planning to eradicate statelessness by 2024. To date, the problem has been solved for more than 800,000 people around the world, explained Gagne in her interview to the state owned news agency FENA on Saturday
She added that 1,795 people in BiH solved their problem of statelessness since the start of the campaign and the country has some 150 more people in this category.
She explained that the majority of them are Roma, especially those born abroad by Bosnian parents but without relevant documents to prove it. The second large group are refugees who arrived from Croatia during the war in 1990s and still live in a legal limbo, unable to solve their legal status in BiH.
She hoped that by the end of 2024 world nations will solve this issue affecting more than 10 million people across the globe.
In February this year, BiH created the necessary legal framework that will help people born abroad by Bosnian nationals, but do not have relevant documents about the exact place and time of their birth, she said.
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