Court name: Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland
State: Switzerland
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: 1954 Statelessness Convention
Key aspects: Acquisition of nationality, Burden of proof, Determination/confirmation of nationality, Standard of proof, Stateless status and documentation, Statelessness and asylum, Statelessness determination
The applicant is a Syrian Kurd, who fled to Austria in 2011. Just after he left, Syria passed a Decree that would have allowed the applicant to acquire Syrian nationality. The applicant was thus deemed to have been able to acquire Syrian nationality, even if he hasn’t done that, and therefore was not entitled to a stateless status.