Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108999

Maureen Lynch, PhD, Refugees International, 1705 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, 202-828-0110, maureen@refintl.org

Every person has the right to a nationality. Yet statelessness continues to be a fundamental cause of discrimination, exploitation, and forced displacement in all regions of the world. Statelessness is a highly complex legal and often political issue with serious humanitarian implications for those it affects, including limited access to healthcare. The exact number of individuals affected by statelessness is not known, though a low end estimate is over 11 million. They are found among individuals from the former Soviet bloc, some of Thailand's ethnic groups, the Bhutanese in Nepal, Muslim minorities in Burma and Sri Lanka, Palestinians, Europe's Roma, the Bidoon, specific cases in the Horn of Africa, ethnic minorities such as the Batwa ‘Pygmy' and Banyarwanda of the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Bihari and Rohingya in Bangladesh, Kurdish populations, numbers of Arab Shiites, some Meskhetian Turks, and Zimbabweans of Indian descent or with links to Malawi and Mozambique. In November 2004, Refugees International (RI) launched a multi-country assessment mission to take a closer look at the global problem of statelessness, and found problems related to health and healthcare were prevelant. In Bangladesh, lack of water and co-habitation with animals, combined with poor drainage and sanitation systems, contribute to a variety of medical problems. In Estonia, the Russian-speaking minority has a higher incidence of drug addiction and HIV/AIDS. The Bidoon in the United Arab Emirates have limited access to affordable medical care. This paper provides first-hand accounts of how statelessness impacts individual health.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify healthcare issues faced by stateless persons.
• Increased awareness of how lack of citizenship affects the health of stateless persons.

Keywords: Special Populations, Health Care Access

Related Web page: www.refugeesinternational.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation