Since available sources on the situation of Palestinians in Lebanon often use the term “refugee”, it is important to recognise that statelessness and refugeehood can be intertwined, as Colin Yeo noted in his most recent work, Refugee Law. The author highlights the overlap:
“[...] one of the major problems faced by a refugee is that they are de facto (effectively) stateless. A refugee is, by definition, outside their country of origin and has lost the protection of that country, leaving them without ‘the right to have rights’ in a system of sovereign nation-states.197 But, formally, a refugee will often retain the nationality of their country of origin. Some refugees may also be de jure (in law) stateless, as is recognized in the definition itself in the reference to a person ‘who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence’. However, it is not necessary for a refugee to also be stateless. As the preamble to the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons 1954 (‘Stateless Persons Convention’) observes, there are many stateless persons who are not refugees. Indeed, many are stateless within the country in which they were born and still reside.”Arendt, H. (2017), The Origins of Totalitarianism, London: Penguin, p.388
The refugee definition in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees [see footnote for definition in the 1951 Convention15] requires an element of persecution whereas the stateless person who is not persecuted falls under the 1954 Convention – though that division can be unclear.16
Where a State or the UNHCR makes a refugee status determination, it should include a finding on whether or not a person could be stateless. However, refugee determination decision-makers may need to speak with foreign officials about applicants, which could jeopardise the confidentiality to which refugees and asylum seekers are entitled. When this occurs, UNHCR recommends, the determination of refugee status must go forward, and consideration of the statelessness claim must be put on hold.17
15 UN General Assembly, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, Article 1, “For the purposes of the present Convention, the term “refugee” shall apply to any person who:[...] owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
16 Colin Yeo: Refugee Law, 2022, pp.78-79
17 See for example para 79 of the UN Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, Geneva, 2014