43. The incoherence resulting from these different registration practices can additionally be illustrated by the following observation. The Dutch Passport Act (Paspoortwet) reads in Article 13 that every alien who is admitted as a stateless person to one of the countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is entitled, within the limits established by law, to an aliens’ travel document (reisdocument voor vreemdelingen), which is valid for at least three years and for all countries. Article 11(2) of the Passport Implementation Regulation (Paspoortuitvoeringsregeling) continues by stating that the alien’s right to such a travel document is to be determined on the basis of his or her status in the GBA. If, however, there is any doubt about the alien’s nationality status in the GBA, further research shall be conducted, according to Article 11(3), which is to take into account the IND’s information about this person’s status. In other words, the IND document containing a person’s presumed nationality can be used to determine nationality for the purpose of issuing a travel document. Yet for the determination of a person’s nationality in the GBA, the IND document is irrelevant. 44. Another authority, the Ministry of Security and Justice, from time to time publishes estimates of the number of illegal aliens staying in the Netherlands. In 2006, they estimated that a total of 128,907 illegal aliens were living in the Netherlands and in 2009 this estimate was 97,000, the fall being attributed to accessions to the European Union.58 This data does not, however, estimate who among this group might be stateless. Therefore, when later we survey the statistical material available, it is important to bear in mind that an overview can only be provided of the limited percentage of officially visible stateless persons and persons of undetermined nationality. 3.3 Statistical overview 45. Stateless people often have no documents. Significant discrepancies between estimates of the prevalence of statelessness and actual statistical findings are therefore unsurprising. Globally, UNHCR has collected reliable worldwide data accounting for 3.5 million stateless persons; a little more than a quarter of the estimated total global stateless population of 12 million people.59 These gaps not only characterize global statistics, but persist in national data too. Few countries keep detailed track of stateless persons on their soil.60 As we have seen in the section above, only those who do have documentation to prove their statelessness are registered as such in the Netherlands, thus making the country no exception in this regard, even if at first sight this might appear otherwise. Table 1. Stateless/unknown nationality – age Younger than 15 15-30 years 30-45 years 45-65 years 65 years or older Total 19,887 (23%) 29,982 (35%) 23,261 (27%) 10,200 (12%) 1,739 (2%) 85,069 Source: CBS, situation 1 January 2010 20 58  ee Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum, “Een schatting van het aantal S in Nederland verblijvende illegale vreemdelingen in 2005”, (2006) and “Schattingen illegaal in Nederland verblijvende vreemdelingen 2009”, (2011). 59 UNHCR, “Global Trends 2010”, 15. 60  . Southwick and M.L. Lynch, “Nationality Rights for All: A Progress Report and Global Survey on K Statelessness”, (2009), 28. Mapping statelessness