1. Discriminatory Nationality Laws
For children born to foreigners in PNG, there are some gender discriminatory procedures for birth registration. In order to register a birth in this case, the parents must provide the father’s work permit and only allow the father as a witness. This could result in children born to foreign parents unable to register their birth, potentially placing them at risk of statelessness.
2. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness
While some protections exist in the laws of Papua New Guinea for stateless children to gain citizenship, they are in sufficient in providing protection to all stateless children born on the territory of Papua New Guinea. Under the current provisions children born to parents whose citizenship is ‘unknown or doubtful’ can gain access to citizenship through a similar deeming provision available to foundlings. Legislation does not protect children born to foreign citizen parents in Papua New Guinea from becoming stateless if they are not eligible for citizenship elsewhere.
3. Citizenship Stripping and Administrative Barriers
Under the 1958 citizenship law of Indonesia, Indonesians living abroad for a period of more than five years without registration would be deprived of their citizenship. Such citizenship deprivation was the initial cause of the potential statelessness of West Papuan refugees in Papua New Guinea. However it is administrative barriers within Papua New Guinea that has protracted their situation. While eligible for naturalization due to the extended periods of residence of West Papuan refugees in the territory, access to citizenship has been a slow and complex process.
There have been reports that children born to Papua New Guinean women and refugee men who had been detained in the Manus Island detention center have been denied birth registration and barred from accessing citizenship.
In 2018, Papua New Guinea’s birth registration rate was reported at only 13%, the lowest in the entire Asia-Pacific region. With a population of over 11 million, this lack of documentation and registration leaves thousands at risk of statelessness.
2021 Population Estimates: National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea