STATELESSNESS AND THE UK The UK is a party to both the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. From 2010 to 2011, UNHCR and Asylum Aid undertook a mapping study to investigate the extent of statelessness in the UK.15 The study revealed that unrecognised stateless and ‘unreturnable’ persons “face the risk of a number of human rights challenges that are directly linked to their lack of immigration status.”16 As a result of this research and with accompanying advocacy, the UK Government introduced a Statelessness Determination Procedure (SDP)17 which came into force on 6 April 2013, enabling stateless persons to apply for recognition of their status and a grant of leave to remain. A grant of leave to remain confers some of the protections stateless persons are entitled to under the 1954 Convention (e.g. the right to work and access to most public funds). The Home Office also issued an instruction on applications for leave to remain as a stateless person. This instruction was amended in February 201618 and in November 2019.19 Statelessness Leave Applicant photographed shopping near his home in London. In March 2019, the Home Office announced that persons granted leave to remain because they are stateless will normally be granted five years leave to remain. 20 This is a very welcome improvement over the previous grant of leave given (of two and a half years). The duration of statelessness leave is now the same as that given to persons with refugee status or humanitarian protection. Reports on statelessness in the UK have highlighted ongoing concerns with the UK’s SDP. UNHCR’s audit found, inter alia, long delays in decision-making and issues with the quality of decision-making (approaches to credibility and failures to assist vulnerable applicants with collecting evidence in accordance with government policy, particularly with approaching national authorities). Importantly, it also found that the absence of legal aid for applicants for statelessness leave along with the lack of in-person interviews could contribute to a number of problems in the identification and assessment of evidence too, including a failure to submit all reasonably available evidence as part of the application. Similarly, research by the University of Liverpool has identified There have been 184 persons recognised through the UK’s SDP since it began in 2013 up to 30 June 202021 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 8 © UNHCR/Katie Barlow. UNHCR, Mapping Statelessness in The United Kingdom, 22 November 2011, available from: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4ecb6a192.html Ibid. Immigration Rules part 14: Stateless persons, available from: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-14-stateless-persons Home Office, Asylum Policy Guidance: Statelessness and applications for leave to remain, 18 February 2016, available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/501509/Statelessness_AI_v2.0__EXT_.pdf Home Office, Stateless leave Version 3.0, 30 October 2019, available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/843704/stateless-leave-guidance-v3.0ext.pdf Home Office, Explanatory Memorandum to the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules presented to Parliament on 7 March 2019, 2019, available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-1919-7-march-2019 UNHCR, Mid-Year Trends Report 2020, Annex Tables 1 and 2, available from: https://www.unhcr.org/5fc504d44.pdf