Hollywood star Cate Blanchett gave her backing to a global campaign that seeks to address the plight of an estimated 10 million people who hold no nationality and are victims of rising xenophobia.

The double Oscar-winner who also serves as a Goodwill Ambassador to the UN Refugee Agency told reporters in Geneva on Monday that "it's time to act".

"It is total invisibility," Blanchett said, bemoaning that stateless people "experience marginalization and exclusion from cradle to grave".

The Australian-born actress's comments come as the UNHCR completes five years of its decade-long campaign to resolve the issue of statelessness.

Individuals without nationality are marginalized, both politically and economically, and often vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

There have even been instances of stateless people going without medical care, education, the right to marry and claim a death certificate.

While addressing the UNHCR's Executive Committee in the Swiss capital, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, "there have been important achievements," in efforts to eradicate the problem of statelessness by 2024 but warned that "progress is far from assured".

"Damaging forms of nationalism, and the manipulation of anti-refugee and migrant sentiment -- these are powerful currents internationally that risk putting progress into reverse," he said.

Source: AFP