The immigration detention of stateless persons in the UK: A new report on the risk of arbitrary detention

The increasing use of immigration detention and the criminalization of irregular migrants is a worrying domestic and global trend. In the United Kingdom, stateless persons – individuals who lack a nationality – find themselves at particular risk of being detained for lengthy periods even though the prospects of their removal are unclear.

After briefly introducing the issue of statelessness, Katia will present the findings of her report 'Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention in the United Kingdom' that she wrote for the European Network on Statelessness. This study shows that the national legislation and practices of the UK fall short of its international and regional obligations and that key issues of concern are the inadequate identification of statelessness in the detention context; lack of procedural safeguards concerning the decision to detain; unreasonable lengthy periods of detention; problematic removal and re-documentation practices; inadequate use of alternatives to detention.

Dr. Katia Bianchini is a researcher at Max Planck Institute for Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Goettingen where she is conducting research on statelessness. She earned her doctorate from the University of York, and she holds an LL.M from the University of San Diego, California, and a Laurea in Giurisprudenza from the University of Pavia, Italy. Before engaging in research, she worked as a civil rights and immigration lawyer in the USA and the UK for about 10 years. Katia just finished writing the report 'Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention in the United Kingdom' for the European Network on Statelessness.