AMMAN — Mahmoud
Al-Ramathan, 35, is married and lives in Jordan’s Northeastern Badia, a
desert-like area that receives little rainfall but grows enough vegetation for
livestock breeders to pasture their flocks.
اضافة اعلان
Although the young man
completed his higher education at Al-Bayt University, he faces many challenges
in terms of employment opportunities, access to public services like
healthcare, and the ability to travel, all due to one central challenge:
Ramathan is stateless.
International law defines
a stateless person as someone “not recognized as a citizen by any country under
its law”. Ramathan is one among many people living in Jordan’s Northern Badia
who meets this definition, lacking Jordanian or any other nationality.
The majority of the
Kingdom’s stateless population consists of nomadic Jordanians belonging to
tribes inhabiting the northeastern regions, local media outlets recently
reported. According to unofficial statistics, their numbers are estimated at
somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000.
Generations of
statelessnessThe MP representing the
northern Bedouin constituency, Habis Al-Shabib, explained that stateless people
living in the Northern Badia typically belong to families that failed to
register for their identity papers in the 80s, when the fathers and
grandfathers of today’s Bedouin population were nomads.
The majority of the Kingdom’s stateless population consists of nomadic Jordanians belonging to tribes inhabiting the northeastern regions.
This meant that they
missed the window to apply for Jordanian nationality and pass it on to their
children and grandchildren. Now, these younger generations face difficult
circumstances because they do not carry identity papers.
Jordan ratified the
Convention against Discrimination in Education, and across the Kingdom,
students can still receive an education even if they lack a national number or
a birth certificate.
For Ramathan, that fact
has offered hope and something to work towards. His father paid for him to pursue
an expensive university education to obtain opportunities that might contribute
to “changing our miserable lives”, he said. However, he is still concerned
about the future of his four daughters.
“My daughters have birth
certificates and identification cards, but they are waiting to be granted
Jordanian nationality,” he said.
A positive developmentHowever, there is reason
for Jordan’s stateless people to have hope. Shabib told
Jordan
News that a committee in the Mafraq Status Directorate plans to begin working next
week to grant citizenship to those who are stateless and have resided in Jordan
since before 2011.
This new development has
a long-standing legal precedent.
Shabib explained that the
Jordanian Nationality Law stipulates that “all members of the northern Bedouin
tribes… residing in the lands that were annexed to the Kingdom in 1930 are
considered Jordanian.”
As the directorate begins
to register the Badia’s stateless population, Shabib called on those without
any nationality to contact the committee and submit any official documents in
their possession to obtain citizenship.
‘Government negligence’Issa Al-Mazraiq, Director
of the Awareness and Training Department at the National Center for Human
Rights, told
Jordan News that no official figures exist on the
number of stateless people in Jordan. He blamed this on the fact that the
government does not even recognize those without any nationality as being
present in the Kingdom.
Jordanian Nationality Law stipulates that “all members of the northern Bedouin tribes… residing in the lands that were annexed to the Kingdom in 1930 are considered Jordanian.”
However, the national
center estimates that there are about 6,000 stateless people in Jordan — a
number that rises as families grow, further exacerbating the crisis.
The problem is certainly
not a new one in the Kingdom. According to Muraiziq, large numbers of stateless
persons were periodically naturalized until 1986. "After that, there was
government negligence”.
The crisis worsened after
the committee concerned with the affairs of stateless persons, which studies
requests for naturalization, was suspended under the pretext that most
non-Jordanians in the Kingdom hold Syrian nationality. This came as waves of
Syrians entered the Kingdom and sought to obtain Jordanian nationality after
the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.
Muraiziq confirmed that
the National Center for Human Rights had called more than once in its annual
reports to reactivate this committee to register Jordan’s stateless.
The unique plight of
stateless women"Imagine the life of
a person who does not have the status of a citizen but who loves Jordan and
knows nothing else,” said a stateless woman in Jordan, who preferred to remain
anonymous.
“Despite this, she is
unable to complete her education, and denied the right to drive a car, receive
medical treatment, and everything else that requires a national number,” she
told
Jordan News. “This is our situation.”
For stateless women in
particular, she said, completing their education is a common challenge. “The
maximum stage they reach is the 10th grade, and most of them are satisfied by
the sixth grade, because they will work in the fields or as seamstresses.”
“Because they are without
nationality, they only marry Bedouin men, while the men marry women who have a
national number,” she said. This means that, often, stateless women end up
staying unmarried, as Bedouin men typically prefer to marry women who have
citizenship.
“Every person has the right to be legally recognized, especially through obtaining nationality.”
A high percentage of
stateless people live in tents, raise livestock, and work on farms, and they do
enjoy water and electricity services, she said. However, 200km from where her
tent is pitched, in the Al-Ruwaishid and Manshiyat Ghiath areas, “families do
not have access to services and face great challenges”.
Becoming JordanianAn independent consultant
in the field of human rights, Riyad Al-Sobh, told
Jordan
News that, due to the limited availability of information on Jordan’s stateless people,
further research must be conducted to determine their status and needs.
“Every
person has the right to be legally recognized, especially through obtaining
nationality,” he said.
Sobh called on stateless
persons to refer to the National Center for Human Rights after preparing the
necessary information, to begin the process of obtaining citizenship.
Jordan News attempted to contact the
Ministry of Interior to provide a statement but received no response.
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