What is statelessness? UNHCR estimates that every 10 minutes a child is born stateless somewhere in the world. In Europe, more than half a million people are stateless, including many thousands of children. The true number is likely much higher as data is limited. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights protects everyone’s right to a nationality. Every child’s right to a legal identity and nationality are also explicitly protected in Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. People are (or become) stateless when they are not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. The 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons sets out the legal definition and rights owed to stateless people (which are similar to the rights of refugees). Whether someone is stateless depends on a) what nationality laws say and b) how nationality laws and policies are applied in practice. When assessing whether someone is a national of a State, the determinative question is whether the relevant authority of that State considers them to be a national. Statelessness affects migrants and refugees, as well as people who have lived in the same place for generations. There are many reasons why someone may be (or become) stateless. This includes discrimination in nationality laws, barriers to birth registration, changes in national borders when States break up or new States are formed, forced displacement, gaps or conflicts in different countries’ nationality laws, or deliberate State action to deny or deprive someone of their nationality. Certain groups of people are particularly affected by statelessness, including (but not limited to) Rohingya, Palestinians, Sahrawi, Kurds, Roma, and Kuwaiti Bidoon. Statelessness can have a profound impact on a young person’s life, preventing access to fundamental rights and making daily life difficult. The stress and uncertainty associated with statelessness can also affect mental and physical health, particularly for children and young people whose sense of identity is still developing. The longer statelessness goes unrecognised, the harder it may become to access basic rights as well as to secure longer-term stability through permanent residence, family reunification, and access to a nationality. Why is Statelessness relevant to guardianship? Around 2% of first-time asylum applicants in the EU are recorded as stateless or as having unknown nationality each year. In 2025, 1.7% of first-time child applicants (2,395) were recorded as being stateless or having unknown nationality.1 The real figure is likely much higher due to gaps in data and low awareness among authorities meaning statelessness is often not identified and recorded. Some unaccompanied or separated children may already be stateless on arrival to Europe. Others may be at risk of becoming stateless during their migration journey. This could be for In 2025, 525 children (under 18 years old) were recorded as stateless and 1,495 as having unknown nationality. Other relevant groups of children excluded from this total are children recorded under the citizenship category of ‘Palestine’ (1,470). Eurostat, Asylum applicants by type, citizenship, age and sex - annual aggregated data. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bookmark/f7bfb08b-69d0-4637-baab-d73c220a938f?lang=en&cre…. 1 2