35. Following release, stateless detainees are not given a legal status. This heightens the likelihood of repeat detention. In fact, 27% of all people in alien detention centres have been held at least once before and stateless persons are at a particular risk for such repeat detention. The theoretical duration of detention is moreover limitless, as it is possible to re-detain an alien immediately after release as long as the assistant public prosecutor presents new facts and circumstances. 36. The above described practices moreover expose stateless detainees to detention conditions that are a particular cause for concern for a group of people that is already vulnerable. The Aliens Act 2000 which governs the administrative deprivation of liberty does not address the specific vulnerabilities of the stateless and stateless detainees are under lock and key for 16 hours a day without any clarity as to how long they will be held. Unlike criminal detainees, those in administrative detention cannot work or access education. Visits are strictly regulated and visitors need to present a valid ID, something that stateless visitors may not be able to do. Until March 2015, strip- and cavity searches were standard practice. A particularly distressing practice is the use of solitary confinement, either as a disciplinary measure; or as a method of maintaining order. Stateless refugees in the Netherlands 37. The Netherlands faces two realities relating to stateless refugees: the arrival of stateless refugees and asylum seekers and the birth on Dutch territory of children of refugees and asylum seekers who are stateless or at heightened risk of statelessness. According to available data, between September 2015 and August 2016 a total of 49,824 asylum applications were lodged in the Netherlands of which 3,535 were made by people who the IND recorded as stateless, amounting to 7% of all asylum applications.45 As such, ‘stateless’ is listed among the top ten ‘countries’ of origin during the same period. The nine countries on this list are also known to have pre-existing statelessness problems within their territory.46 38. Given the volume of stateless refugees and asylum seekers entering the Netherlands, asylum authorities require a degree of understanding of statelessness and its impacts in order to adequately assess vulnerability and risk. Importantly, where statelessness is a result of arbitrary deprivation of nationality, it may be a factor which is to be taken into consideration when determining a wellfounded fear of persecution. Additionally, failed asylum seekers may still be stateless or at risk of statelessness, and failure to determine this, often compounded by wrongly registering such persons as having a nationality they do not, or as having an ‘unknown nationality’ is likely to result in such persons being treated in a discriminatory manner and subjected to removal and detention which is arbitrary, as discussed above. 39. Children born to refugees and asylum seekers on Dutch territory may be at risk of statelessness due to the laws of their countries of origin and the gaps in Dutch nationality law discussed above. This is likely to be the case when the parents of such children are stateless and may also apply to some 45 Statistics in Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) Monthly report on Asylum Applications in the Netherlands and in Europe August 2016, available at https://ind.nl/Documents/AT%20August%202016.pdf. 46 From September 2015 until August 2016 the top ten of origin countries for asylum seekers were ‘stateless’, Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Albania, Serbia, Ukraine and Kosovo. IND Monthly report on Asylum Applications in the Netherlands and in Europe August 2016, available at https://ind.nl/Documents/AT%20August%202016.pdf.