3.4.2.4 Identification and travel documents Article 27 of the 1954 Convention provides that “The Contracting States shall issue identity papers to any stateless person in their territory who does not possess a valid travel document”.218 Stateless persons in Denmark can be divided into two groups: those with a residence permit or residence rights and those without a residence permit or residence rights (among them, stateless persons whose application for a residence permit has not yet been decided on, or has been rejected). Among the last group, most will have entered Denmark as asylum-seekers. Applicants for asylum will be issued an identity card (asylum-seeker card) with information on their personal data, including whether the individual is stateless. Applicants who are granted a residence permit (of any kind) will be issued a ‘residence card’ certifying their identity, and during the processing of their application for a residence permit, the Danish Immigration Service will have established whether they are stateless. When it is accepted that an asylum-seeker is stateless, this will appear on his or her asylum-seeker card, and when a residence permit has been issued, his/her statelessness will appear on the residence card and in the CPR register. At any point in time, a person who has wrongfully been registered as a national of his or her country of origin may enter into a separate procedure for correcting the wrongful registration. Article 28 is among the “lawfully staying” rights. It provides in full: The Contracting States shall issue to stateless persons lawfully staying in their territory travel documents for the purpose of travel outside their territory, unless compelling reasons of national security or public order otherwise require, and the provisions of the Schedule to this Convention shall apply with respect to such documents. The Contracting States may issue such a travel document to any other stateless person in their territory; they shall in particular give sympathetic consideration to the issue of such a travel document to stateless persons in their territory who are unable to obtain a travel document from the country of their lawful residence. Foreigners who hold a Danish residence permit, and who are recognized as stateless persons in accordance with the 1954 Convention, are entitled to a Danish alien‘s passport which states that the holder has been recognized as stateless in accordance with the 1954 Convention. A specific application form containing information on the right of stateless persons to an alien’s passport was drawn up in 2011. The form contains a detailed explanation on how to complete it and which documents to attach.219 The applicant must tick a box declaring, “I am stateless and I apply for an alien’s passport”. The applicant is advised to be aware that if he or she is not registered as stateless in the Immigration Service’s register and in the CPR, such a change is necessary in order to obtain an alien’s passport on the basis of statelessness. 3.5 Conclusions and recommendations Denmark has made a commendable effort to improve the procedure in which statelessness is established for purposes of correct registration, and has adopted a legislative basis for the authorities’ registration of foreigners’ personal data (including statelessness). The steps taken in this area can usefully be shared with other countries that are facing challenges in ensuring that the various national authorities involved in the registration of persons 56 218 By the terms of its text, Article 27 applies “to any stateless person in [a Contracting State’s] territory” and is thus not dependent on the person’s residence status. See also UNHCR Handbook, para 132 (discussing the convention’s “rights on a gradual, conditional scale”) and para 133 (describing Article 27’s right to identity papers as accruing “to individuals when they are physically present in a State party’s territory.”) 219 The application form for an alien’s passport along with a detailed explanation is available at: https://bit.ly/2DhGMmH. Mapping Statelessness in Denmark