According to the ministerial report of 2011 on the ‘statelessness case’, stateless children born in Denmark made up
a substantial part of the applicants who had been listed in Naturalization Bills in 2009 due to their fulfilment of all
the requirements in the Naturalization Circular. Stateless children born in Denmark made up between 9 and 16 per
cent of all applicants listed in the two Naturalization Bills in 2009 (121 and 254 children respectively). Likewise, in
the first half of 2010, before the re-establishment of a naturalization practice in accordance with the Conventions,
stateless children born in Denmark made up 10 per cent of all listed applicants (89 stateless children out of 913
applicants).314
Figure 21 illustrates the number and legal grounds on which stateless persons have been listed in Naturalization
Bills from October 2010 to the end 2016.315
Figure 21: Stateless persons listed in Naturalization Bills (2010-2016)
Oct
2010
Apr
2011
Nov
2011
Apr
2012
Oct
2012
Apr.
2013
Oct.
2013
Apr.
2014
Oct.
2014
2015
2016
Total
Convention on
the Rights of the
Child
121
48
79
37
19
20
11
27
12
41
77
492
(38%)
Convention on
the Reduction of
Statelessness
35
11
36
13
7
1
2
1
0
1
0
107
(8%)
Standard
requirements
21
20
22
22
21
17
27
29
73
346
103
701
(54%)
Total per bill
177
79
137
72
47
38
40
57
85
388
180
1,300
Source: Information from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration to the DIHR in letters of 29 April 2016 and
14 June 2017, and Naturalization Bills submitted to the Danish Parliament October 2010 – October 2014 (L38316,
L192317, L11318, L163319, L42320, L211321, L53322, L179323and L45324).
The figure indicates that up to 2014, around half (51 per cent) of stateless persons who had been included in Danish
Naturalization Bills since October 2010 were included on the basis of the CRC (358 persons). A relatively smaller
part of stateless persons (14 per cent) were included based on the 1961 Convention (106 persons), while around
a third (34 per cent) has obtained Danish nationality by fulfilling the general requirements applicable to stateless
immigrants applying for naturalization in Denmark (252 persons). In the period from October 2010 to October 2014,
732 stateless persons in total had been listed in Naturalization Bills. Among them, 480 persons had been listed on
the basis one of the two aforementioned Conventions.
However, in 2015, this picture changed with a significant increase of stateless applicants acquiring Danish nationality,
predominantly by fulfilling the standard requirements of naturalization. The fact that many more foreigners
314
See the report, Ministry of Integration, ‘Redegørelse til statsministeren om Integrationsministeriets behandling af ansøgninger om
indfødsret fra statsløse personer født i Danmark’, 7 March 2011, available at: https://bit.ly/2X10pGE.
315
In October 2010, the first Naturalization Bill was submitted to the Danish Parliament comprising a number of stateless applicants who did
not fulfil the general naturalization requirements.
316
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20101/lovforslag/l38/index.htm.
317
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20101/lovforslag/L192/index.htm.
318
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20111/lovforslag/L11/index.htm.
319
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20111/lovforslag/L163/index.htm.
320
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20121/lovforslag/l42/index.htm.
321
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20121/lovforslag/l211/index.htm.
322
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20131/lovforslag/l53/index.htm.
323
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20131/lovforslag/l179/index.htm.
324
http://www.ft.dk/samling/20141/lovforslag/l45/index.htm.
UNHCR Representation for the Nordic and Baltic Countries
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