112 Swider and den Heijer in this part of the world.37 We deem it useful for the purposes of explaining the added value of an EU instrument on statelessness, to make a few brief observations about the magnitude of the statelessness problem in Europe—both in terms of numbers and categories as well as some common protection failures on the part of EU Member States. 3.1 Statistical Information on the EU’s Stateless Population One of UNHCR’s main findings is that if any statistics on statelessness are at all gathered by state authorities of European countries, the numbers are often not representative of the real scope of the phenomenon.38 In its most recent documents, UNHCR presents the figure of 400,000 stateless persons living in the EU.39 The vast majority of this number, based on solid figures, are in Estonia and Latvia. But outside those countries, numbers usually come from national databases, which are often compiled in the context of absent or inadequate determination procedures. A cursory inquiry into national data reveals that they may not reflect reality. The Netherlands, for example, has reported to have 1,951 stateless persons in 2013, which is the number registered in the Dutch Basic Registry of Persons (‘Basisregistratie Personen’). Research shows, however, that the registration of stateless persons in the Dutch Registry is often incorrect.40 The high standard of proof required to demonstrate statelessness and other problems with this registration system, is likely to result in stateless persons being registered with the status ‘nationality unknown’, or even with a nationality which they in fact do not possess. On the other hand, some individuals registered as stateless in the Dutch Registry may in fact possess a nationality. There are over 80,000 persons in the Netherlands with an ‘unknown 37 These include Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Malta, Finland. See Mapping Statelessness reports by the UNHCR in these countries, available on Refworld Statelessness website www.refworld.org/statelessness.html. 38  U NCHR, Mapping Statelessness in the Netherlands (Geneva, UNHCR, 2011), p. 33; UNHCR, Mapping Statelessness in Malta (Geneva, UNHCR, 2014), pp. 46–56; UNHCR, Mapping Statelessness in Belgium (Geneva, UNHCR, 2012), p. 17. See also Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion ‘The World’s Stateless’ December 2014. 39 See, for example, UNHCR, ‘Stateless and voiceless in the EU’, Statement on the occasion of the European elections, 22 May 2014, available online at http://www.unhcr.org/537dfb209 .pdf. 40  U NHCR, Mapping Statelessness in the Netherlands (Geneva, UNHCR, 2011), pp. 17–18; Swider, K., Statelessness Determination in the Netherlands, Research Paper No. 2014–04 of 8 May 2014 (Amsterdam, Centre for European Law and Governance, 2014). European Journal of Migration and Law 19 (2017) 101–135