Fig. 9 - People of unknown nationality born in NL with no
residence permit - father's country of birth (N>50)
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Source: CBS, situation 1 January 2010. “N > 50” indicates that data is only included where it
concerns at least 50 individuals.
72. It is interesting to note that 90 persons born in the Netherlands to a father also born on
Dutch territory have no known nationality. Although no clear information is available, it
may be that part of this figure corresponds to individuals who lost their Dutch citizenship
because they fought in the Spanish civil war, complemented by a statistical “remnant”
of children born out of wedlock between April 2003 and March 2009 (see section 3.2). In
addition, it should be noted that the vast majority (94 per cent) of Dutch-born persons of
unknown nationality without a residence permit appear to be children, born in the 2000s,
pointing to the difficulties in acquiring a nationality for many children born to foreign
parents in the Netherlands. Presumably the high numbers of persons of Afghan, Iraqi and
Somali origin visible in figures 8 and 9 reflect those whose claim to asylum was rejected
due to absent or questionable (identity) documents, but who did not leave the country after
this unfavourable decision. It is impossible to tell precisely how many people of unknown
nationality experience all difficulties related to statelessness, but cannot live up to the nofault procedure’s high standard of proof and are thus left without a permit. Nonetheless,
judging by the data displayed in figures 8 and 9, persons of Somali, Yugoslav and Soviet
origin, as well as those originally from Angola, Burundi, China, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Sudan are at particular risk of being left without
both an (agreed upon) nationality and a permit to reside.
32
Mapping statelessness