The applicants, are Palestinians of unknown nationality from Syria who left their country with Syrian travel documents and visit visas for Switzerland and their asylum applications were rejected by decision of 28 August 2025, confirmed in court on 25 January 2018. They were provisionally admitted because the deportation could not be implemented. The applicants have further applied for recognition of statelessness arguing that they were registered with UNRWA which us active in Syria, but they do no longer feel protected by the Agency. The three requests have been rejected by separate decisions of SEM and the applicants appealed against before the Federal Administrative Court which dismissed them by judgement of 9 June 2021.

The applicants submitted a complaint in matters of public law on 23 July 2021 and requested that the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court should be repealed. They also request that their statelessness be recognized and that they be granted a residence permit. The SEM requested to maintain the contested decision.

The Federal Tribunal reiterated that it is bound by the facts presented before the lower court and noted that UNRWA was created in view of the special situation of the Palestine refugees in need of assistance and protection with the purpose to provide direct assistance to Palestinian refugees located in one of the five theatres of operations (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza Strip). UNRWA mandate was last extended until 30 June 2023.

The applicants alleged that UNRWA can no longer provide assistance, that they voluntarily left the country but it is impossible for them to obtain travel documents from Syria.

The Federal Tribunal referred to the definition and principles of granting stateless status to those who do not formally have citizenship (de iure stateless persons) but not to those who still have formal citizenship but are no longer granted protection or who refuse the protection of their country (de facto stateless). Based its jurisprudence and in light of the principles derived from the Stateless Persons Convention, the Federal Tribunal mentioned that Art. 1 of the Stateless Persons Convention is to be interpreted in such a way that a stateless person is someone who has been deprived of their nationality through no fault of their own and has had no opportunity to regain it. Since there is no evidence that the applicants have renounced their nationality willingly or that they had any possibility of acquiring a nationality. They are therefore among the de jure stateless persons within the meaning of Article 1 Paragraph 1 of the Stateless Persons Convention.

In the second part of the judgement, the Federal Tribunal examined whether the exclusion provided in Art. 1 para. 2 subpar. i of the Convention on Stateless Persons (an exception to the scope of the Convention, which exempts persons who are currently receiving and still benefiting from protection or assistance from an agency or body of the UN other than the UNHCR) is applicable. The Federal Tribunal noted that in another judgment of 6 August 2021 (A v State Secretariat for Migration (Staatssekretariat für Migration – SEM), 2C_330/2020, 06 August 2021) it ruled that that the exclusion clause of Art. 1 para. 2 subpara. i of the Stateless Persons Convention does not apply if the person can no longer claim the protection or assistance of UNRWA after leaving its area of operations. In such a situation, the Statelessness Convention is therefore applicable and the person is to be recognised as stateless. The decisive factor in assessing whether such a situation exists is the extent to which the person concerned can reasonably go to one of the operational areas of UNRWA's area of operations in order to make use of their protection or assistance there. Since the applicant have been provisionally admitted in Switzerland because they can not be deported due to the situation in Syria, it can not be expected from them as reasonable to go to an area of operation of UNRWA.

In the present case, the Federal Tribunal noted that the applicants are currently being temporarily admitted to Switzerland because the enforcement of their deportation (in view of the security situation in Syria) was considered unreasonable and in such situation, it is currently not reasonable for the applicants to return to Syria as they are currently unable to seek UNRWA protection or assistance there. This would apply even if this organisation were to continue to operate in Syria.

The Federal Tribunal concluded that the applicants can no longer to seek UNRWA's protection or assistance again, and the refusal to recognize their statelessness violates the Statelessness Convention. Consequently, the appeal is admitted as well-founded and, the contested judgment must be set aside. The State Secretariat for Migration is ordered to recognise the applicants as stateless persons.