1. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness
Due to the lack of in-country partners and available research, the causes of statelessness within Laos are largely unknown. Lao citizenship laws provide that foundling children will be considered citizens. Laos’s citizenship legislation further provides that children born to stateless parents are considered Lao citizens if the parents are permanently residing in Laos and have ‘integrated to the Lao society and culture’. However, the US Department of State has noted that this process is not automatic, requiring multiple levels of administrative and government approval and does not protect all stateless children born in the territory of Laos. A child born to one Lao citizen parent and one ‘apatride’ parent will be a citizen no matter their birthplace. In the Law on Lao Nationality, an ‘apatride’ is defined as an individual residing in Laos who is not a Lao citizen and who is unable to certify their nationality, which can be interpreted as stateless persons or persons with undetermined nationality. A child born to two ‘apatride’ parents may gain citizenship if the parents are both permanent residents, integrated into Lao society, and the parents request the child to gain citizenship.
2. Citizenship Stripping
If a Lao citizen migrates to another country for 7 years without authorization, their Lao citizenship can be forfeited. This can also occur if the citizen’s authorization to reside overseas expires while not under the administration of the Lao embassy or consulate in their country of residence. Citizenship may also be forfeited if a citizen “has not maintained any legal connection with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic for more than ten years”.
3. Administrative Barriers
Low birth registration rates and barriers to birth registration, especially among the Hmong ethnic minority population, may place persons in Hmong at risk of statelessness. In 2014, Laos stated in a Report of the Working Group that a national action plan had been developed calling it the Strategic Plan for Civil Registration, to explore a digital birth registration system. This Plan began in 2017 and set a vision to reach universal birth registration for Lao people by 2030. Three goals are included in the Plan, which includes universal and effective civil registration, legal documentation of civil registration for all individuals, and compilation and dissemination of vital statistics based on registration records. Laos set a specific target to achieve a 70% birth registration rate by 2024, which they have been successful in achieving. However, the country has yet to reach a universal birth registration rate, which was reported as 73% in 2017.