The Lack of a Statelessness Determination Procedure and Risk of Arbitrary Detention 31. Serbia does not have a formal procedure for the determination of statelessness, even though this is of key importance for individuals to access their rights. Without the determination of statelessness, stateless persons can be denied issuance of travel documents, which prevents them from registering permanent residence or accessing other rights. Furthermore, the failure to recognise stateless persons can lead to their discriminatory treatment. 32. The lack of a procedure to identify and recognise statelessness will have a particularly strong human rights impact if Serbia adopts the current version of its Draft Law on Foreigners.41 Under the Draft Law, the maximum immigration detention period is prolonged from 180 days42 to 12 months.43 The Draft Law stipulates that the initial period of detention (six months) can be prolonged for an additional six months if the foreigner’s identity has not been established and if the foreigner deliberately hinders forced expulsion.44 These reasons are stipulated in current law, however, the new Draft Law specifically states that the inability to establish the foreigner’s identity or the lack of a travel document are examples of the individual trying to hinder their forced removal.45 This provision is clearly discriminatory towards stateless persons. 33. In its Handbook on the Protection of Stateless Persons, UNHCR establishes that being undocumented or not being in possession of the necessary documents cannot serve as a justification for detention. According to UNHCR, the detention of individuals seeking protection on the grounds of statelessness is arbitrary since the very nature of statelessness severely restricts access to basic identity and travel documents that citizens normally possess.46 However, under the Draft Law on Foreigners, a person’s inability to cooperate in removal procedures is equated with non-cooperation, which may result in stateless persons being punished simply for not having documents. The lack of a statelessness determination procedure to facilitate the identification of statelessness prior to and/or during detention, puts stateless people and those at risk of statelessness at significant risk of being disproportionately impacted on by the Draft Law and subjects them to the risk of arbitrary detention.47 41 Draft Law on Foreigners is available at: http://www.paragraf.rs/nacrti_i_predlozi/181016-nacrt_zakona_o_strancima.html. Article 50(3) Law on Foreigners (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, no. 97/2008),. 43 Article 88(4) Draft Law on Foreigners. 44 Article 88(2) Draft Law on Foreigners. 45 Article 87(4) Draft Law on Foreigners. 46 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, 2014, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/53b676aa4.html, para 112. See also European Network on Statelessness, Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention – a Regional Toolkit for Practicioners, 2015, available at: http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/attachments/resources/ENS_LockeInLimbo_Detention_Agenda_onl ine.pdf, p. 16-17. 47 European Network on Statelessness (2017) Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention: an agenda for change, available at: http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/attachments/resources/ENS_LockeInLimbo_Detention_Agenda_onl ine.pdf. 42 10