Statelessness is not a new phenomenon, but in the last decade, the serious human rights implications for individuals without nationality have received much international attention. Yet this international engagement and focus is not reflected in Australia, where there is little debate, knowledge or public awareness of statelessness.

Stateless people have migrated to Australia for decades yet are generally not officially ‘counted’ or recognised by government agencies. At the end of 2022, the UNHCR reported that 8,314 stateless people live in Australia. This figure is imprecise as statelessness is largely derived from self-reports, and Australia has no statelessness determination procedure.

The Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness Australian Research Council project seeks to address this knowledge gap and learn more about this population. This work-in-progress presentation will explore what is known about stateless people in Australia and the barriers they experience in realising their human right to nationality.

About the speaker

Dr Philippa Duell-Piening is a Visiting Fellow at RegNet, ANU and a Research Fellow at the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness. She is working on the Australian Research Council-funded Understanding Statelessness in Australia research project. Philippa conducts socio-legal qualitative research, including interviews with people with lived experience of statelessness and other stakeholders.

Before entering academia, Philippa led the Victorian Refugee Health Network, which works with government, health and settlement services to build the capacity of the Victorian health system to be more responsive to the needs of people from refugee backgrounds, including people seeking asylum. Outside of Australia, Philippa worked in the forced migration contexts of Timor-Leste in 2002 and on the Thai-Myanmar border in 2012.

COVID protocols

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This seminar presentation is in-person only. Registration is not required for in-person attendance as neither the ANU nor ACT Health conduct contact tracing any longer.

If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan please email regnet.communications@anu.edu.au.

Image credit: Public domain image of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) index card - often the only form of documentation - for a stateless person destined for Australia following the Second World War from Wikimedia Commons.