countries applied for re-registration. Refusals have been given in a small number of cases, and a number of appeals have been decided on. The initial re-registration process was completed in November 2012, when 804 applicants had been registered as stateless persons, which can be compared to 171 such registrations in 2011.189 3.3.3 Conclusions The assessment of a person’s statelessness can take place in the context of asylum application and application for other residence permits, but also when a person already lawfully resident in Denmark requests an assessment of statelessness. In first instance, the Danish Immigration Service is the competent authority, although different divisions work on different situations (i.e. on asylum or applications for residence permits on other grounds). The applicant needs to provide available information on his or her identity and nationality or statelessness. The Danish Immigration Service’s Country of Origin Information Division may obtain information on statelessness in a particular country through various means. For an assessment of statelessness, it needs to be established to a “reasonable degree” that an individual is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. Decisions made by the Danish Immigration Service can be appealed. However, as will be explained in the following sub-chapters, an assessment of a person’s statelessness does not lead to the granting of a status as a stateless person with corresponding rights (following from that status). 3.4 Rights of applicants and recognized stateless persons 3.4.1 Rights of applicants during the statelessness determination procedure Under current Danish law, statelessness alone does not as such serve as a ground for rights. Only a few rights are recognized in practice.190 This also applies to persons having their statelessness assessed within the context of asylum or other immigration procedures. In other words, persons in the process of having their statelessness assessed by the Danish Immigration Service are not, as a rule, entitled to particular rights pending the outcome of the assessment. In practice, the Danish authorities will often clarify already at the arrival of an immigrant or an asylum-seeker whether the person concerned is stateless. Often, statelessness will be registered based on person’s own information and documentation, and insofar as this is the case, such person is not considered awaiting determination of statelessness. Notably, in an August 2012 interview with DIHR, the Danish Immigration Service stated that as regards the rights of stateless persons, it would take into consideration whether the country that is primarily responsible for a person’s statelessness has changed its nationality laws and granted stateless persons access to nationality. 3.4.1.1 Detention Routine detention of individuals seeking protection on the grounds of statelessness is arbitrary. Statelessness, by its very nature, severely restricts access to basic identity and travel documents that nationals normally possess. Moreover, stateless persons are often without a legal residence in any country. Thus, an individual’s undocumented 50 189 Information given in an email from the Danish Immigration Service to the DIHR dated 9 March 2015. 190 Cf. below in the introduction to section 3.4.2. Mapping Statelessness in Denmark