Madagascar’s Karana people still awaiting nationality

Published: 9/Nov/2017
Source: UNHCR

By Markku Aikomus

MAHAJANGA, Madagascar – Since he was 15, Ibrahim Ickbal, a 50-year-old father of two, has worked in the same jewellery shop in the city of Mahajanga, on Madagascar’s northern coast. Although he barely earns enough to rent the two-room house he shares with his wife and children, he considers himself lucky to have a job of any kind.

Ibrahim belongs to Madagascar’s Karana community, an ethnic minority group. Although his family arrived in Madagascar from India more than a century ago, Ibrahim does not possess Malagasy nationality. Like a significant portion of the Karana in Madagascar, and like his father before him, he is stateless.

Read further: http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2017/11/5a018ff44/madagascars-karana-people-still-awaiting-nationality.html

Themes: Discrimination, Ethnic/Racial/Religious, Statelessness
Regions: Madagascar
Year: 2017