In such situations, Migri does, however, not always consider the child as stateless as also illustrated by the case above. Instead, Migri considers the child to be a national of one of the parents’ countries of nationality or determines the nationality of the child to be “unknown” or “not known”. 172 However, as the child does not automatically acquire the nationality of the parents and the necessary action to acquire the nationality is not taken by the parents, the child has not in fact acquired any nationality and effectively remains stateless. Regarding and registering the child as national of the parents’ country of nationality or as of unknown or not known nationality is not logical or correct in light of Section 2 of the Nationality Act or Article 1 of the 1954 Convention. Children born to stateless persons in Finland automatically acquire Finnish nationality. In three of the asylum cases from 2009 to 2011 which were reviewed, a child was born to stateless parents during the asylum procedure and the child acquired Finnish nationality in accordance with the nationality legislation of Finland. In two of these cases, the child’s Finnish nationality was the only ground for granting a residence permit to the rest of the family: a residence permit was granted based on family ties to the child who had acquired Finnish nationality. In one case, the family was granted a residence permit based on subsidiary protection and therefore there was no need to grant a residence permit based on family ties. The Finnish legislation and practice with regard to grant of nationality in cases of birth on the territory is in compliance with Finland’s international obligations and provides for efficient prevention of statelessness. 4.3.1.2 BIRTH OUTSIDE THE STATE’S TERRITORY Finnish nationality is always automatically acquired through a Finnish mother at birth by operation of law, regardless of being born in or outside of Finland. Nationality is also automatically acquired by operation of law from a Finnish father if the parents are married, regardless of where the child was born. If the parents are not married and the child is born outside the country but the father was a Finnish national at the time of the child’s birth, the child can acquire Finnish nationality by declaration, provided that the paternity has been established. The procedure is explained below in section 4.3.4.2. The conditions for automatic acquisition of Finnish nationality for an adopted child have been brought as close as possible to the conditions set for a biologic child of a Finnish national. According to Section 10, a foreigner who is under 12 years of age and has been adopted and has at least one parent who is a Finnish national, acquires Finnish nationality through the adoption as of the date the adoption becomes valid in Finland. Whereas the provisions of the Finnish legislation do not make particular references to stateless persons in this regard, they however ensure grant of nationality for a child born outside the territory, but with a parent being a Finnish national, including in cases where the child would otherwise be stateless. The Finnish legislation is thus in conformity with the requirements of the 1961 Convention (Article 4) and European Convention on Nationality (Article 6). 4.3.1.3 FOUNDLINGS In accordance with the Nationality Act, a foundling is considered a Finnish national until it has been established that she or he is a national of another State. In order to avoid a conditional nationality situation to continue indefinitely, the child will keep the Finnish nationality after turning five years of age, regardless of what information on nationality follows from that moment. This is in compliance with the provisions of 1961 Convention (Article 2) and the European Convention on Nationality (Article 6) and the limitation of the possible loss of Finnish nationality only up to five years of age can be regarded as exceeding the requirements of the Conventions. 172 Migri does not have statistics and is unable to currently estimate how common such situations are. E-mail from Migri, 17 September 2012. UNHCR STOCKHOLM, NOVEMBER 2014 49