nationality. They should thus not bear sole responsibility for establishing relevant facts. Sharing the burden of proof will also recognize the role of the State to obtain more reliable information from the relevant authorities of other States’ embassies. d) The statelessness determination procedure should be non-adversarial and ensure due process guarantees, including access to free legal advice and the right to an effective remedy where an application is rejected. Any administrative fees levied on statelessness applications should be reasonable and not act as a deterrent to stateless persons seeking protection. e) Where, despite the cooperation of the individual, it is not possible to establish within a reasonable time frame (to be determined at national level by relevant authorities) that someone registered as of unknown nationality does possess a nationality, a determination of statelessness would be appropriate. f) It is recommended that specialized training on nationality law and practice, international standards and statelessness be provided to officials responsible for making statelessness determinations. More generally, awareness raising initiatives regarding the existence of the statelessness determination procedure should be undertaken. 4 5 60 The research has identified around 500 people who are registered as stateless in the municipal basic administration (GBA) who are likely to be genuinely stateless, as opposed to another approximately 1,500 people who are registered as stateless, who are of Indonesian descent with quasi-Dutch citizenship or who are of Portuguese parents who have a right to Portuguese citizenship. The majority of these 500 people are children and most have been born in the Netherlands, but do not hold a residence permit. UNHCR therefore recommends that the assessment of this group be prioritized to determine their statelessness or nationality. Where necessary, Dutch citizenship and a residence permit should be granted. This would be important to ensure that the Netherlands upholds its obligations under Article 1 of the 1961 Convention and Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Where an applicant expresses protection concerns vis-à-vis his or her country of origin, a full assessment of refugee status or subsidiary protection needs to be done. Contact with the country of origin for the purposes of assessing statelessness should only be made if the individual is found not to be in need of international protection. For those no longer in the asylum procedure, the fact that they have applied for asylum should not be revealed to the country of origin. Mapping statelessness