The Broadening Protection Gap extended assistance to the 1967 Palestinian ‘displaced persons’. 12 The UNRWA operates in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and provides assistance to approximately 5.5 million Palestine refugees across these five locations. 13 Palestinian refugees who live outside of the UNRWA operating areas do not fall under its mandate and cannot receive the UNRWA assistance. Every year, a considerable number of individuals who identify as Palestinian arrive in Belgium. 14 These individuals originate from the Gaza Strip and the WestBank, from different neighbouring countries under UNRWA’s area of operation (Jordan, Syria and Lebanon), other Arab countries like Iraq, Egypt and Libya, or from the Gulf states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (‘UAE’)). These persons are registered as either of Palestinian origin, of undetermined nationality 15 or stateless, 16 which makes it difficult to provide accurate statistics on this group. 17 ASSESSMENT OF THE STATELESSNESS OF PALESTINIANS BY DIFFERENT BELGIAN AUTHORITIES A The Family Tribunals, Courts of Appeal, and the Court of Cassation in the Framework of the Statelessness Determination Mechanism 1 The Mechanism for Determination of Statelessness in Belgium In Belgium, the judiciary is competent to determine statelessness. 18 Persons seeking to be recognised as stateless have to apply to one of six family courts 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 ibid. ‘Eligibility & Registration’, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Web Page) <https://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do/eligibility-registration>. For 2019: 2,321 (out of a total of 23,379) initial applications for international protection (third largest group): Statistiques d’Asile Décembre 2019 [Asylum Statistics December 2019] (Report, Commissariat Général aux Réfugiés et aux Apatrides 9 January 2020) 4 <https://cgra.be/sites/default/files/statistiques_dasile_2019_decembre.pdf>. For 2018: 2,421 (out of a total of 19,038) initial applications for international protection (second largest group); Statistiques d’Asile Décembre 2018 [Asylum Statistics December 2018] (Report, Commissariat Général aux Réfugiés et aux Apatrides 9 January 2019) 4 <https://www.cgra.be/sites/default/files/statistiques_dasile_2018_decembre_fr_0.pdf>. For 2017: 817 (out of a total of 15,373) initial applications for international protection (sixth largest group); Statistiques d’Asile Décembre 2017 [Asylum Statistics December 2017] (Report, Commissariat Général aux Réfugiés et aux Apatrides 9 January 2019) 4 <https://www.cgra.be/sites/default/files/statistiques_dasile_2017_decembre_fr_0.pdf>. It appears from these figures that, in 2018, the number of applications submitted by Palestinian nationals (mainly from Gaza) increased dramatically when compared to 2017 — from 817 to 2,421 applications (almost three times more). This was the first time that Palestine was in the top three for asylum applications in Belgium. Together with other non-Palestinian people who are not able to prove their nationality. If they have been recognised as such by the Belgian courts. Country Briefing: Belgium (Report, European Network on Statelessness October 2020) <https://index.statelessness.eu/sites/default/files/Country%20Briefing%20Belgium%20ENG _2020%20final.pdf>. ‘Judiciary of Belgium’, Wikipedia (Web Page) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_of_Belgium>: 303