officially Dutch citizens.72 In this regard, it is at first sight remarkable that virtually all these purportedly stateless Moluccans are registered as without a residence permit. However, when one considers that as quasi-citizens these individuals do not require a residence permit to reside legally in the Netherlands, even this makes sense.73 55. It should be noted that children of Somali and Portuguese parents, despite having been born in the Netherlands, appear to be at particular risk of remaining stateless. For the children of Portuguese parents, under the Portuguese Nationality Act of 3 October 1981, a child born abroad only receives Portuguese citizenship when the birth is entered into Portugal’s nationality register or when the parents approach the Portuguese authorities with an explicit request to grant citizenship. Without such registration the child remains stateless. (The same applies to Cape Verdean nationality law.)74 It should be noted that it is entirely possible that these children were stateless at birth and registered as such, but that their parents soon after applied for Portuguese nationality for their children without notifying the GBA.75 In such circumstances, if the parents do not report this changed nationality status, the label “stateless” is never changed.76 Therefore, persons of Portuguese origin are probably overrepresented in the available statistics. The situation is more complex for children of Somali parents. They are regularly registered as either stateless or of unknown nationality because Somalia lacks the “competent authority” to – among many other tasks – issue credible identity documents.77 Children then in principle inherit their parents’ absent or unknown nationality. Furthermore, according to Somali law, a woman may not transfer her nationality to her family. As a result, children of single or unaccompanied female migrants or asylum-seekers are stateless from birth, absent any evidence of acquisition of the nationality of the father. 56. With regard to the other origins mentioned in figure 3, there is no conclusive information on the characteristics of these individuals. It seems likely that the group of former USSR citizens became stateless during the process of State succession. Likewise, the break up of the former Yugoslavia would account for another group of individuals, especially when combined with the knowledge that the region is home to many stateless Roma. 72  hough it is difficult to determine with absolute certainty, the plausibility of this explanation was T backed up by Eric Gubbels and Hans Tomson at the NVVB. It should nevertheless be remembered that under the 1958 Indonesian nationality law many people born abroad were stateless either because their mother could not confer nationality and/or their parents were stateless due to the five-year automatic loss provision for residence abroad. 73  his finding also corroborates the argument in general, as the consistency in the way stateless T persons of Indonesian origins are registered presupposes a rather homogenous group of people, such as Moluccans for instance. Out of a total of 754 registered stateless persons with an Indonesian background (either born there or with an Indonesian father), 738 persons do not have a residence permit. No more than 14 individuals have a regular permit, none hold an asylum permit. Two persons are registered as having “either” an asylum or a regular permit. Combined with the Moluccans’ historic proneness to statelessness, the statistical homogeneity of this group renders it unlikely that many non-Moluccan stateless Indonesians have accidentally been filtered out too. 74 P.H. Oostendorp, “Staatloosheid, onbekende nationaliteit en de GBA”, 127. 75  n inventory conducted by Eric Gubbels at the municipality of Amsterdam has shown that no cases A appear to have been reported where parents inform the municipality of the child’s acquisition of Portuguese nationality. UNHCR nevertheless assumes that stateless children born to Portuguese parents are at some point registered with the Portuguese authorities and granted Portuguese nationality. Interview with Eric Gubbels – telephone, 3 March 2011. 76 Interview with Eric Gubbels – telephone, 27 January 2011. 77 Ibid. in the Netherlands 25