6.1 Status determination and access to an appropriate legal status A dedicated stateless person status determination procedure enables states to establish who is entitled to benefit from any special protection regime that has been put in place in response to statelessness. Recognising a person as stateless and granting an appropriate legal status can therefore facilitate the implementation of other protection measures. To determine if a person is stateless, an examination must be made of the nationality legislation of relevant countries and how the law has been interpreted and applied in the context of the case at hand. This may require contacting the authorities of the respective countries.157 As such, a provision like article 39 of Viet Nam’s nationality law can be helpful. According to that article, among the “responsibilities of the Government for nationality” is to “enter into international cooperation on nationality”.158 This, along with the definition of a stateless person provided under the same law,159 gives the authorities the basic tools for status determination. As mentioned earlier, no ASEAN country currently offers access to a dedicated stateless person status determination procedure on an ongoing basis. In terms of principles and procedures that could be established, the practices of countries outside the region that do conduct status determination can be informative.160 Yet, even without a dedicated procedure for stateless person status determination in place, states may identify individual cases of statelessness through a variety of avenues. One outcome of nationality verification for undocumented migrants – such as that conducted in Thailand, as discussed above – may be the identification of a residual group for whom no nationality can be confirmed. Where this is the case, providing for the possibility of recognising these individuals as stateless will help to stabilise their situation and promote protection. In states where asylum claims are processed,161 among the applicants for refugee status there may be persons who have no nationality. This process can therefore offer an opportunity to attribute stateless person status accordingly. Alternatively, a state may simply be able to recognize a person as belonging to a known stateless population within its territory, without the need for formal status determination in individual cases.162 Perhaps more important than the question of how statelessness is determined, is the question of what effect is given to recognition as a stateless person. Ideally, recognition will lead to the conferral of an appropriate legal status – one that guarantees stability and access to rights.163 Unfortunately, none of the 157 It is important to note that the authorities of any relevant countries should only be approached in the context of stateless person status determination “once it is certain that the person is not entitled to asylum since an exchange with the country in question could put the person at risk”. UNHCR, UNHCR Action to Address Statelessness – A strategy note, March 2010. 158 Article 39 (6) of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality, Order No. 22/2008/L-CTN, 2008. See also, for instance, various articles of international instruments relating to nationality that call for international cooperation and information exchange, such as articles 23 and 24 of the European Convention on Nationality and article 18 of the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on Nationality of Natural Persons in relation to the Succession of States. 159 Article 3 (2) of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality, Order No. 22/2008/L-CTN, 2008. 160 In Spain, for example, a dedicated procedure was established by Royal Decree 865/2001 of 20 July approving the Regulation for the Recognition of the Status of Stateless Persons. Applicants may approach police stations or the Office for Asylum and Refugees (part of the Ministry of Interior). The office will conduct an investigation to determine if the person is stateless in accordance with various rules of evidence and procedure. Several other states have also taken steps to identify a competent decision-maker and outline procedures for stateless person status determination – including France, Italy, Hungary and Mexico. C. Batchelor, The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons: Implementation within European Union Member States and Recommendations for Harmonisation, UNHCR, October 2003; G. Gyulai, Forgotten without reason. Protection of non-refugee stateless persons in Central Europe, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, 2007; UNHCR and IPU, Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians, 2008; UNHCR, UNHCR progress report on statelessness 2009, EC/60/SC/CRP.10, 29 May 2009; G. Gyulai, “Remember the forgotten, protect the unprotected” in Forced Migration Review, Issue 32, 2009. It is of interest to note that the experience of such countries shows that providing for a dedicated determination procedure and status of “stateless person” under the law has not created a significant pull factor for migration. Over the period from 2001 to 2006, Spain saw an average of less than 70 applications per year for stateless person status and recognised only 23 applicants as stateless over this entire period. G. Gyulai, Forgotten without reason. Protection of non-refugee stateless persons in Central Europe, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, 2007 161 As is, for instance, the case in the Philippines under the Department of Justice. 162 In this context, note that UNHCR’s guidance suggests that individual determination of stateless person status will not generally be required where activities are undertaken on behalf of an entire population. Indeed, “resources should not be dedicated to a formal determination of statelessness where a realistic, immediate goal is the acquisition, reacquisition or confirmation of nationality by such a population”. UNHCR, UNHCR Action to Address Statelessness – A strategy note, March 2010. 163 Again, in Spain for instance, recognition of an individual as stateless results in the granting of legal residence and access to protection under the country’s laws as a stateless person.C. Batchelor, The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless 24