The legal and policy framework relating to statelessness in Greece is a mixed picture. There are some areas of good practice, but in many areas, improvements are needed. Greece has a relatively good record of accession to international human rights instruments, but it is party to only one of the four core statelessness instruments. Some limited and partial data is available on the stateless population, but different agencies use different categories in their data collection, and there is no standard guidance for identifying nationality.
There is a definition of a stateless person in Greek law, statelessness may be identified in some administrative procedures, and there are some procedures to facilitate the acquisition of Greek nationality by some stateless people, but there is no mechanism to determine stateless status nor grant other 1954 Convention rights. There are also gaps in the legal framework to prevent the arbitrary detention of stateless people.
On the prevention and reduction of statelessness, legal safeguards are in place to prevent statelessness among children born on the territory and foundlings, but practical barriers may hinder or delay their implementation. There are barriers to birth registration for some groups, including Romani people, undocumented migrants, and asylum seekers in some parts of the country. Reforms have been implemented in recent years seeking to address some of these barriers, but some measures were revoked in 2020. Provisions on loss and deprivation of nationality contain explicit safeguards to prevent statelessness in some cases, but not in all.
Katerina Komita, Greek Council for Refugees
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