- English
The legal and policy framework in Albania has some positive aspects and some important gaps. Positively, Albania is State Party to three of the four core statelessness conventions with no reservations, as well as all other relevant international instruments. Some data is available on the stateless and at-risk population from the 2023 census and a mapping study, but there is no ‘stateless’ category in asylum and immigration data, including in relation to detention.
There is a definition of a stateless person in Albanian law, but it is narrower than the 1954 Convention definition. The 2021 Law on Foreigners established a statelessness determination procedure, and an instruction to implement and regulate the procedure was published in June 2023. However, no information is available yet about practice. There are some positive elements to the procedure as set out in the instruction, but uncertainties and gaps also remain. For example, lawful residence is required to access the SDP and there is no clarity on the rights granted as a consequence of being determined to be stateless.
There is a facilitated route to naturalisation with a somewhat reduced residence period and exemptions from some of the standard requirements. Some limited safeguards protect against the arbitrary detention of stateless people, but there are barriers to effective remedies and legal aid, and people released from detention are not protected from re-detention.
The law ensures that children born stateless on the territory, foundlings, adopted children and most children born to nationals abroad acquire Albanian nationality. There have been measures to reduce the risk of statelessness and improve access to birth registration, but children still face difficulties if parents are undocumented or have irregularities in their documentation, and Romani and Egyptian communities are disproportionately impacted.
Same-sex marriages are not recognised and children of same-sex parents may not be able to have both parents listed on their birth certificates.
The original version of this country profile is the English version. In case of any discrepancies with the translated version, the English version should take primacy
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