On the Right to Have Nationality Rights: Statelessness,… 313 can, under the relevant conditions of application, be exercised—and, here, the issue of a right to naturalize becomes central to our concerns. In introducing this issue, we can start by considering de facto statelessness which, under the Prato Conclusions, is characterised thus: ‘de facto stateless persons are persons outside the country of their nationality who are unable or, for valid reasons, are unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country’.49 As the ‘Prato Conclusions’ go on to note: Inability to avail oneself of protection may be total or partial. Total inability to avail oneself of protection will always result in de facto statelessness. Persons who are unable to return to the country of their nationality will also always be de facto stateless even if they are otherwise able in part or in full to avail themselves of protection of their country of nationality while in the host country (i.e. diplomatic protection and assistance). On the other hand, persons who are able to return to their country of nationality are not de facto stateless, even if otherwise unable to avail themselves of any form of protection by their country of nationality in the host country.50 This passage expresses a clear ranking of the rights that it takes as (minimally) constitutive of the possession of an effective nationality with the right to return and abide in one’s state of nationality trumping the right to diplomatic protection. Since the ‘Prato Conclusions’ acknowledge that refugees are de facto stateless, it follows that mere formal possession of a right to return is not sufficient and it must also be the case that ‘unable or, for valid reasons, unwilling’ means having valid reasons to reject the formally available option of return. But what is the extent of such reasons? This issue is raised starkly by the current UK and wider EU practice of returning to Afghanistan, adults who came to the UK as child refugees. Setting aside the question of whether the current dangers confronting returnees from the EU to Afghanistan are compatible with legitimate repatriation,51 the issue is whether someone who may have little meaningful connection to Afghanistan, although possessing its nationality has valid reasons not to avail themselves of the right to return and, hence, to be seen as de facto stateless. This question can be extended further. Consider a case raised by Catherine Allerton’s research on children and statelessness in East Malaysia: Take 10 year-old Aisyah, a Suluk girl holding an IMM13 card, whose grandparents came to Sabah as refugees in the 1970s. Once, during a discussion with her class about the differences between Sabah and the Philippines, Aisyah told me: ‘I don’t know anything about the Philippines’. She has no family that she knows of left there, has never been there, and explicitly refuses to discuss it as a place with which she should have any connection. As holders of IMM13 cards, Aisyah and her parents are ‘legal’, in the sense of being allowed to remain in Sabah. However, they still lack a nationality. Whether or not the 49 UNHCR (2010), A (2). UNHCR (2010), C (7). 51 For appropriate scepticism, Amnesty International (2017). 50 123