[JURIST] Stateless children throughout the world experience feelings of discrimination and despair that may not only haunt their childhood but negatively affect the rest of their lives as well, according to a report [text] released by the UN on Tuesday. The authors interviewed more than 250 youth and parents in seven countries this summer. According to the report, stateless youth are more likely to lack education and job prospects as they get older, causing families to remain marginalized for several generations. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [official website] is urging [press release] nations to prevent statelessness by granting nationality to all children born in their country, allowing mothers to pass on nationality to their children equally and eliminating laws that prevent nationality because of race, ethnicity or religion.

Migration continues to be a serious global problem. In October Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] reported that Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have faced horrific abuses at sea and rendered essentially stateless [JURIST report] by discriminatory laws and persecution and have become victims of human trafficking. In August the British and French governments warned [JURIST report] in a joint article by British Home Secretary Theresa May and French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve that the world is facing a “global migration crisis.” Last year, the UNHCR also issued [JURIST report] a new global strategy to help countries stop detaining asylum seekers, refugees and stateless people worldwide.