430 Melbourne University Law Review [Vol 40:401 to resident status’149 does not obviate Australia’s obligations under either the 1954 Convention or the Refugee Convention.150 A third issue relates to the possession of documentation by the applicant. As detailed above, PAM3 states that decision-makers must consider ‘all available information’.151 However, there is no discussion of the challenges an applicant may face in providing documentary evidence, such as identity and travel documentation, or oral evidence. On account of not being recognised as a national by any state, stateless persons generally do not have documentation as to their citizenship status. This may prevent them from obtaining other forms of identity documentation as well.152 For instance, there are many factors that may undermine a stateless applicant’s ability to have his or her birth registered. As such, there may be legitimate reasons why a stateless person is unable to provide either documentary or oral evidence as to the date, place and registration of his or her birth. The UN Children’s Fund (‘UNICEF’) estimated in 2013 that ‘the births of nearly 230 million children under age five [around one in three] have never been recorded.’153 In situations of conflict, protracted displacement, humanitarian emergencies and post-conflict transition, birth registration rates are significantly lower or even non-existent.154 They are particularly low among refugee and asylum seeker populations,155 mainly because parents are often ‘unable to approach the consular authorities of their country of nationality in order to register or claim documents for the child’, and ‘the host State may also be unwilling to provide for birth registration.’156 Additionally, in some countries there are significant barriers to the immediate and effective registra149 Department of Immigration and Border Protection (Cth), PAM3, above n 93, 130 [87.1]. 150 They each contain equivalents of art 1(E ) of the Refugee Convention which require de facto nationality, not just residence. But see ss 36(3)–(7) of the Migration Act, which requires a decision-maker to consider whether an applicant has taken all possible steps to exercise a right to enter and reside in a safe third country. If the applicant has not, this provides a basis for refusal of a protection visa. 151 Department of Immigration and Border Protection (Cth), PAM3, above n 93, 127 [81]. 152 European Network on Statelessness, ‘Still Stateless, Still Suffering: Why Europe Must Act Now to Protect Stateless Persons’ (Report, 2014) <http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/ENS_Still_Stateless_Still_Suffer ing_online%20version_2.pdf>; UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, above n 20, 16 [38], 34 [90]. 153 UN Children’s Fund, Every Child’s Birth Right: Inequities and Trends in Birth Registration (2013) 14. 154 UNICEF, Birth Registration and Armed Conflict (2007) 7. 155 UNHCR, ‘Birth Registration’ (Child Protection Issue Brief, UNHCR, August 2013). 156 UNHCR, Self-Study Module on Statelessness, above n 40, 26.