3.4.2.5 OTHER RIGHTS GUARANTEED Although ordinarily Norwegian law does not expressly provide for rights on the ground of statelessness, certain requirements are waived for stateless persons. In Norway, most welfare system rights are linked to residency status. For example, if a child has a residence permit in Norway valid for at least six months, the child will be issued a social security number and will thus have certain rights and be provided with the relevant services. Importantly, however, essential healthcare and primary education are not linked to residence status. A child need only be physically present in Norway to obtain and exercise these rights. Thus, even stateless children in Norway who have not been granted any permit, such as stateless asylum seeking children and stateless children seeking a residence permit, are entitled to education and essential healthcare. This is a right is guaranteed all children in Norway.162 The Immigration Regulation § 8-7 governs the right to a residence permit in the event of practical obstacles to return beyond the control of the foreign national. The prerequisites for obtaining a residence permit pursuant to this regulation are: (a) it must have been three years since the case was opened without the rejection having been implemented, and it must be considered unlikely that it will be possible to carry out the return; (b) there must not be any doubt as to the identity of the applicant, and as a general rule, the applicant must have assisted in clarifying his/her identity during the period as an asylum-seeker; and (c) the individual must have contributed to making his/her return possible, including by helping to procure a travel document issued by his/her country of origin. Unreturnable persons who qualify for a residence permit under § 8-7 have reduced rights in Norway, such as a reduced subsistence allowance for their basic needs and the right only to emergency healthcare.163 These people can live in a legal limbo for many years. Under current practice, there is little likelihood of regularizing an irregular stay, though there are certain exceptions, including for families with children who have been in Norway for more than 4.5 years.164 According to NOAS, the provision is rarely invoked, and the police rarely consider the applicant to have assisted in clarifying his/ her identity or to have contributed to making his/her return possible.165 If a child is born in Norway to asylum-seeking parents who are not granted refugee status, the child will be returned along with the parents to a home country, assuming the parents are returnable. If there is no receiving country, the child will be left in the same legal limbo as the parents. The Immigration Act § 38 does, however, require that the authorities consider if there are strong humanitarian considerations and whether the foreign national has a particular connection with the realm, which implies that a residence permit should be granted under such circumstances. The Immigration Act § 38 (3) provides that in cases concerning children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration. Accordingly, children may be granted a residence permit even if the situation is not so serious that a residence permit would have been granted to an adult. The Immigration Regulation § 8-5 elaborates on what factors should be accorded weight in the assessment of what is in the best interests of the child. 162 Vitus, K. and Lidén, H, 2010, The Status of the Asylum-seeking Child in Norway and Denmark: Comparing Discourses, Politics and Practices, p. 62, see also Reception of asylum seeking and refugee children in the Nordic countries, The Norwegian report, see, for example, p. 16. 163 The asylum procedure and to some extent the living conditions of rejected asylum-seekers who are stateless have been covered in various reports and articles, such as NOAS, Retur til Hva? (2011), Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights Report: Palestinian Refugees in Iraq and whom under Threat of Deportation Back to Iraq (2012), see especially pp. 18-19 and Solveig Holmedal Ottesen, Papirløse migranter, En undersøkelse av situasjonen for mennesker uten lovlig opphold I Norge, og humanitære tiltek for denne gruppen I andre europeiske land (2008), see especially pp. 8-19. 164 See https://goo.gl/fny6r8. 165 Email from NOAS lawyer Marek Linha, 30 September 2015. UNHCR STOCKHOLM, OCTOBER 2015 39