1961 Convention, which is concerned with the prevention and reduction of statelessness, suggests that a duty to find out who is and who is not some country’s national does exist. Recognition of statelessness, and registration as such, could in UNHCR’s view, be a first step in the process of determining an individual’s nationality. The case below illustrates some of the registration practices outlined above, as well as their challenging burden of proof. Case law A Syrian Kurd was registered in the GBA as being of unknown nationality. He requested that the registration be changed to “stateless” on the basis of a Syrian identity document issued by the Mukhtar (village head) of his place of origin. The District Court of Roermond refused the request, holding that the Syrian identity document contained no information about nationality as required under Article 43(1) or 43(2) Act GBA. In addition, the court held that research conducted by the IND into Syrian nationality law had not shown that the claimant did not possess Syrian nationality. Consequently, the court, without further investigation, ruled that the IND had “conducted sufficient research from which it could conclude that it could not be inferred from the Syrian Nationality Act whether or not the claimant had acquired a nationality”.54 41. Municipal authorities are not the only institutions keeping registers of individuals. The IND keeps a register of applications for residence permits, where a distinction is made between applications for “asylum permits” and “regular permits”. Published IND statistics do not specifically count applications by stateless persons, but the category “nationality unknown” is applied. In 2009, out of 14,905 first-time asylum applications, 507 (3.4 per cent) concerned persons who had no known nationality.55 However, apart from applying for asylum, newly arrived stateless persons in the Netherlands may also apply for a regular residence permit under the “no-fault” procedure. How many stateless persons or persons of unknown nationality have filed an application in this way is unclear. One reason for the lack of clarity in these IND statistics is that the organization’s registration system “confuses persons with an unknown nationality with those who are stateless”.56 42. The lack of uniformity as to the qualification and registration of statelessness is one of the most problematic aspects of the current Dutch approach to statelessness in law and policy. In this respect it is interesting to note that Evers and De Groot have recently argued for a statelessness determination procedure the outcome of which should be binding for all Dutch authorities dealing with statelessness.57 53 Rechtbank Roermond, 23 April 2007, LJN BA4086. 54 In Syria, there are between 200,000 and 300,000 persons of Kurdish origin who do not possess Syrian nationality. Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken: Ambtsbericht Syrië, 17 September 2009, p. 60, available at: http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/ministeries/bz/documenten-en-publicaties/ ambtsberichten/2009/09/17/syrie-2009-09-17.html. UNHCR estimates that there were some 300,000 persons of Kurdish origin without nationality in Syria at the end of 2010. See UNHCR, Global Trends 2010: 60 years and still counting, 20 June 2011, available at: http://www.unhcr. org/4dfa11499.html, table 1. 55 IND Information and Analysis Centre: Asylum Trends August 2010. 56 E-mail from an IND Senior Policy Official, 17 November 2010. On file with UNHCR. 57  . Evers and G.-R. de Groot, “Staatloos of van onbekende nationaliteit of nationaliteit in L onderzoek?”, (2011, on file with UNHCR). in the Netherlands 19