IV. Socio-economic rights for persons granted leave to remain based on statelessness V. Preventing statelessness through acquisition of British nationality Departures from 1954 Convention: general approach, definition and exclusion provisions 14. UNHCR appropriately describes the 1954 Convention as establishing ‘a framework for the international protection of stateless persons’.28 UNHCR observes in its Handbook on statelessness that ‘although the 1954 Convention does not explicitly address statelessness determination procedures, there is an implicit responsibility for States to identify stateless persons in order to accord them appropriate standards of treatment under the Convention’.29 The obligation to identify statelessness stems not only from the 1954 Convention, but is inherently linked to other international human rights and becomes juridically relevant when particular rights, including liberty and security of the person, are engaged.30 The UK, however, does not consider statelessness to be a ‘protection’ issue.31 As elucidated below, this flawed approach results in discriminatory treatment of stateless persons as compared to applicants for asylum and complementary protection,32 particularly with respect to absence of appeal rights and free legal assistance, access to certain socio-economic rights, and difference in status granted to stateless persons (2.5 years rather than 5 years). 15. The UK’s definition of statelessness departs from the 1954 Convention definition in Article 1(1) (also considered customary international law). Article 1(1)’s definition is not limited by Article 1(2) of the Convention, which excludes some stateless persons from the Convention’s application. The UK Immigration Rules, though, define persons who fall within an exclusion provision as falling beyond the scope of the definition of stateless persons: 401. For the purposes of this Part a stateless person is a person who: (a) satisfies the requirements of Article 1(1) of the 1954 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, as a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law; (b) is in the United Kingdom; and (emphasis added) (c) is not excluded from recognition as a Stateless person under paragraph 402.33 28 ‘Introductory note by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR, Geneva, May 2014), http://www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/statelessness/3bbb25729/convention-relating-statusstateless-persons.html, 3. 29 UNHCR Statelessness Handbook (note 8) para 144. 30 See ibid, para 122. 31 This is evident in the lack of legal aid and implementation of an administrative review procedure instead of a full right of appeal. Further, although the Government’s 2013 statelessness guidance (Section 2.1) referred to ‘the UK’s protection response’, the 2016 guidance does not; and a 2015 email from the Home Office stated that ‘stateless applications are not considered to be protection based applications’; Email of 27.07.2015 in response to a request by Liverpool Law Clinic for one of their clients for permission to work. 32 Called ‘humanitarian protection’ in the UK. 33 Para 402 states: A person is excluded from recognition as a stateless person if there are serious reasons for considering that they: 6