Bermuda-Born Man Has ‘Stateless’ Child
A man born in Bermuda to Canadian parents was not aware his Belgium-born child would be stateless until after her birth. The 16-month old baby is not a citizen of any country, and is effectively without a nationality.
Ian Goldring, 43, was born in Bermuda where his Canadian father was working as an accountant, however cannot pass on his Canadian citizenship as laws limit the ability to one generation born abroad – and his baby daughter Chloe would be the second generation.
Mr Goldring does not have Bermudian status as Bermuda does not confer citizenship to babies born on island to foreign parents.
His Algerian wife, Yamina Guidoum cannot transmit her Algerian citizenship to a baby born overseas as she is a female married to a foreign man.
That leaves 16-month-old Chloe without a passport or nationality, and basically stuck in Belgium as her parents are unable to obtain travel documents for her.
“I was flabbergasted,” Mr Goldring told Reuters, “Having a stateless child is something that never occurred to me.”
Baby Chloe is one of quite a few ‘stateless’ children, see the Reuters article here for more.
Wouldn’t she be Belgian if she is “Belgium born”?
In answer to Wiaruz, I suspect that baby Chloe is no more Belgian than her father is Bermudian. She was born in Belgium but neither of her parents are Belgian. Her father was born in Bermuda but has no rights to live or reside here because neither of his parents were Bermudian. Let’s say that one of the four Uighars presently living in Bermuda were to father a child to a non-Bermudian mother. What nationality would the child be? Would Bermuda confer status on the child. I seriously doubt it. It would be subject to the law of unintended consequences!
This is going to become more and more common here in Bermuda with all the permanent residents… They need to start reviewing prc’s on a case by case basis taking into consideration the fact that many young PR’s were born here and do not know their parents home country as home. PR’s should be allowed to apply for status after so many years… just my opinion.
She can come here…we took the Uighers (not 100% sure of the spelling). They don’t have passports either. We took grown man who can fend for themselves so I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t accept an innocent young child…too bad Dr. Brown is on vacation..maybe we can ask his 2nd in command the Col. surely he could answer this…….
Common Sense. You are right! She is just like her father. He is born in Bermuda like so many others and they are born without nationality and Bermuda will not recognise them. Even if there parents are PRC holders or have been here for years.
I was lucky I was able to get status, my sisters, not so lucky. ALso born in Bermuda but no rights because they left the island to attend their snr year of highschool and then college. By doing so they forfeited their rights to apply for status. So they are not allowed in the country they were born in for anything other then Vacation, 21 days! My parents who were here for almost 40 years got nothing after applying many a time, And have ultimatley left and went to live in a county they left a long long time ago. They contributed to Bermuda, Taxes, Hospital levy, social insurance and the ecomony……. Yet the uighers were allowed to come here and work??? neither my parents nor my sisters are allowed to live here?? Fair? I think not.
Stories like these is why Bermudians are so upset and angry because of how the vighers were allowed to live here but law abiding and innocent child are not allowed to come here and be with her family. And you wonder why peolple hate the system.
From Kingdom of Belgium web site
http://diplomatie.belgium.be/en/services/services_abroad/nationality/declaration_children/born_in_belgium/index.jsp
You are a Belgian citizen if:
You were born in Belgium and you would be a stateless person (= not have a nationality) before the age of 18 or before your emancipation if you did not have Belgian citizenship. However, this rule does not apply if you can obtain another nationality upon completion, by your legal representative(s), of administrative measures set by the diplomatic or consular authorities in the country of one or both of your parents. In this case, you will not have been given Belgian nationality.
I think she has a right to Belgian citizenship.
Often, Bermudians who marry foreigners (e.g. Americans or Canadians) seem to know the law and rules governing citizenship. To make sure their child receives citizenship the pregnant wife would travel to the U.S. or Canada and have the baby giving it citizenship in that country then return to Bermuda and apply for dual citizenship through the Bermudian parent. This avoids any issues relating to nationality. Mr. Goldring should have had his wife travel to Canada to have their child born under their citizenship. This would have alleviated the stress of having a stateless child.
I predicted something like this would happen several years ago. It is errant nonsense to suggest that you should have to fly to another country to ensure your child has a nationality. It is actually not normally permitted for a pregnant woman to fly beyond a certain number of weeks so unless you can hide the bump this is not a viable option.
There are some countries where people were born that cannot pass on their nationality unless the child is born in the same country. If two of these people have a child in Bermuda it is very possible that a child can be born without nationality.
The whole Bermudian status issue is blatantly against human rights but nobody will complain in case they get kicked off the islands. When someone who has the money to pay for legal proceedings finally takes this to the European Court of Human Rights this nonsense will continue. These children did not ask to be born in Bermuda.
Once Independence is achieved all these PRC holders will have to be given status in the same way long term residents in Barbados or the Bahamas got theirs.
THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO HAVE A FAMILY – CONSIDERING:
1) YOUR WIFE IS A DIFFERENT NATIONALITY
2) YOU ARE WORKING/LIVING IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY OTHAN THEN WHERE YOUR CITIZENSHIP LIES
3) YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE SHOWS YOU WHERE BORN IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY THAN YOUR COUNTRY OF CITIZENSHIP.
4) THE CITIZENSHIP LAWS OF THE COUNTRY OF WHICH YOU CURRENTLY RESIDE
JUST BECASUE YOU ARE BORN IN A COUNTRY DOES NOT ENTITILE YOU TO CITIZENSHIP/STATUS.
Its an interesting article but to be blunt this doesn’t have much to do with Bermuda, i agree that we need to look into citizenship of children that are born here from parents with PRC’s and that children who have known only bermuda to be rejected is very sad and shameful! i am bermudian and was not born here and had to fight for my rights because of that… i know what it is to fight for your home and to live overseas and feel that you dont have one… However i cant help but think parents should be thinking of their kids when they have them. Back to this situation… sad story and i hope it works out for the family but the comments about bermuda accepting this child seem a little strange, yes the man was born here but from reading the article it doesnt appear that he lives here or has rights to.. so innocent child or not the comments being written are not really about this case.. unless i am off base.
Wow, how news travels these days. I am actually the person referred to: Ian Goldring (seriously).
Not looking to get into any arguments with anybody, but just to set the record straight my mother is actually Bermudian; she has later in life taken out Canadian citizenship as well, but when I was born she was only Bermudian. Likewise I am a Bermudian citizen, though I haven’t lived there since I was a child. I understood that Chloe wasn’t able to have Bermudian nationality according to the various rules (at the time I looked them up but do not remember all the specifics off the top of my head)
About the stateless status in Belgium, yes technically she would have the right to Belgian nationality if stateless, but as with so many things, what the law says and how it works out in practice are not smoothly linked up.
You have to demonstrate you are stateless, which means both countries have to provide you with an official document declaring they refuse to give you nationality.
As long as the whole process is hung up with one of them, you can’t go ahead with the request from Belgium.
In practice these matters drag on for yearsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
That is if you ever do get an answer, Canada I suspect will eventually respond one way or another (who knows when), but Algeria is unlikely to be of much help. So… unless you’ve got lots of money for lawyers or political contacts, you are looking at a very long and unsure process, that I wish on no one.
So anyway, that’s the situation folks, all the best in the sun.
By the way, my whole life, because I was born in Bermuda, I have had to answer an unending stream of questions about the f****** Bermuda Triangle ‘is it true? do you know anyone who…’
Since I popped in, have any of you had the same thing?
All the best
Ian
Oh just one more thing, if you are really interested, the law had been changed just a few months before the child was born.
When the pregnancy started the laws were different, I phoned in and they said no problem, just come around and pick up her documents when she’s born – they gave me the impression I could be quite blasé about it.
The previous rules had been much easier, and as it only affects people in a very particular niche situation it wasn’t given much attention in the press at the time, so I never heard anything about it till after Chloe was born and I phoned up the embassy again about ‘picking up her papers’ – then whammo!
Ian