An Afghan woman aboard a U.S. evacuation flight gave birth to her son on the plane, after she landed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany on August 21st. .
Air Mobility Command said via its Twitter account: “During a flight from an intermediate staging base in the Middle East, the mother started working and started having complications. The commander of the plane decided to go down in altitude to increase the air pressure on the plane, which helped to stabilize and save the mother’s life. “The mother and daughter are in a stable state. now in a military medical center, according to reports.
In Germany, where the baby of the Afghan woman was born, citizenship is not established by birth in German territory, but by descent from a German legal mother and / or a German legal father. But since the baby was delivered to the cargo ship of an American aircraft, it is unclear what laws will apply in this particular case: German laws, U.S. laws, or whether the baby will be considered a citizen of Afghanistan, the country to which the mother belonged.
Broadly speaking, citizenship of an air-born child is not easy because different countries have their own policies on this issue.
A look at U.S. citizenship laws on children born on flights
In the case of the United States, a person can become a citizen at birth or by naturalization. According to the 1944 International Civil Aviation Convention, all aircraft have the nationality of the State in which they are registered and may not have multiple nationalities.
Therefore, under this 1944 Convention, for births, the nationality law of the “nationality” of the aircraft may be applicable, and for births that occur in flight while the aircraft is not within the territory or the airspace of any state, is the only applicable law this may be relevant as to the acquisition of citizenship by the place of birth.
However, if the aircraft is located or flies over the territory of another state, that state may also have simultaneous jurisdiction, it is what the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Handbook says.
Also, even if the aircraft is registered in the United States but is outside the country’s airspace, a child born on that aircraft cannot acquire U.S. citizenship citing the place of birth as a reason.
What about refugee children?
In the case of the Afghan woman’s son, the question of her citizenship is complicated by the fact that her mother is a refugee. It is unclear whether the woman was traveling alone or with family and when she left Afghanistan. The plane he was on had taken off from an intermediate staging base in the Middle East.
A refugee is defined as a person who has been forced to “flee his country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee is afraid of persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Chances are they won’t be able to return home or be afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are the main causes of refugees fleeing their countries, “according to UNHCR.
A document published by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles states that “refugee children born in exile are especially at risk of statelessness. Although most of them, in principle, inherit the nationality of their parents, many they do not do so, for example, because of discrimination based on sex in the law of nationality of the country of origin of the parents.Several refugee children automatically acquire the nationality of their parents at birth, but this nationality is often only it will exist in theory, as parents are prohibited from registering their child with the authorities of the country of origin ”.
Newsletter | Click to get the best tellers of the day in your inbox