There has been a lack of uniformity between Statistics Denmark and the Danish Immigration Service in the classification of different groups of stateless persons, which complicates the comparison of statistics from different data sources. Statistics Denmark distinguishes in statistics on persons’ nationality between “stateless” and “not stated” (nationality), while the Danish Immigration Service traditionally separated “stateless Palestinians” from “other stateless persons”. Nowadays, the category “stateless persons” includes “stateless Palestinians”, while a few statistical overviews merge the categories “stateless/unknown”. 2.2.2 The target population Most stateless persons have come to Denmark as refugees, arriving spontaneously or as part of a resettlement program, applied by Denmark back in 1979. Since 1989, Denmark has annually granted about 500 refugees a residence permit in accordance with the resettlement program. However, in 2016 and 2017, the Danish government has decided to put the resettlement program on hold.55 As will become clear from the statistics outlined in Section 2.2.2.1, the largest number of recognized stateless persons in Denmark is comprised of stateless persons of Syrian and Palestinian origins from different countries, such as Lebanon and Syria. Many Syrians have fled to Denmark during the recent war and many Palestinians came to Denmark during the civil war in Lebanon in the 1980s,56 also fleeing persecution.57 The database of the Country of Origin Information Division contains background information of several groups of stateless persons, among others, stateless Palestinians, stateless ethnic Nepalese from Bhutan, stateless Rohingya from Myanmar, and stateless Kurds from Syria. Apart from these populations, information could also be found on stateless Bidoon from Kuwait and stateless former Soviet nationals from countries including Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Republic of Moldova, Belarus, Kirgizstan, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Russia.58 Rohingya have been granted asylum in Denmark, both as spontaneous asylum-seekers and as resettled refugees.59 The Rohingya refugees were among those who were informed in 2012 of their right to have an incorrect registration corrected in the CPR-register. Since then, the number of stateless persons from Myanmar with residence rights in Denmark has increased significantly, from only two persons in 2012 to 142 persons in 2017, see figure 7. Other refugees in Denmark among whom statelessness is common are Bhutanese refugees of Nepalese origin. For a number of years, Denmark received about 150 Bhutanese refugees per year for resettlement. In 2012, the Danish-Bhutanese Culture Organization estimated that 650 Bhutanese refugees had residence in Denmark and that most of them were stateless. In the same year, however, Statistic Denmark had only recorded 92 stateless persons of Bhutanese origin. According to the Danish-Bhutanese Culture Organization, many Bhutanese refugees were at that time in the process of getting a former wrongful registration as national of Bhutan corrected to “stateless”.60 The results of the re-registration procedure is reflected in the records of Statistics Denmark, which counted 718 stateless persons of Bhutanese origin as having residence in Denmark by July 2017 (see Figure 7). 55 See the September 2017 draft bill on the introduction of a new quota arrangement at https://bit.ly/2CTYuwN. 56 Information obtained from the Danish-Palestinian friendship organization during an interview on 15 August 2012. 57 See Mohamed Kamel Doraï. Palestinian Emigration from Lebanon to Northern Europe: Refugees, Networks and Transnational Practices. Refuge, 2003, 21 (2), p.23-31, available at: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00291746. 58 Hundreds of thousands of persons became stateless in the early 1990s because of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Since then, Denmark has, according to Statistics Denmark, received 45 stateless persons from the following republics of the former Soviet Union: Russia (14), Estonia (7), Latvia (12), Lithuania (1), Belarus (1), Ukraine (5), Armenia (4) and Azerbaijan (1). See Statistics Denmark (Quarterly Population Statistics (FOLK1)). 59 See the Danish Immigration Service’s reports of June 2003 and January 2011 on fact finding missions into the situation of Rohingya, available at: https://bit.ly/39xTeuO and https://bit.ly/2OYSo0z. 60 Interview with the Danish-Bhutanese Culture Organization, 26 August 2012. UNHCR Representation for the Nordic and Baltic Countries 17