The Health Centre for Undocumented Immigrants serves people irregularly in Norway, among whom are some stateless people. The Health Centre’s statistics shed some light on the hidden world of stateless persons not covered by administrative data. The Health Centre registers their patients according to the information given by the patient. From the opening of the Centre on 27 October 2009 until 30 June 2012, 1,400 first-time patients were registered with the Centre.96 Of these patients, 10 were registered as stateless or of unknown nationality, and 47 patients were registered as Palestinian.97 Again, these figures were based on information provided by the patients themselves. According to the Centre’s statistics, two-thirds of their patients are one-time asylum-seekers who received a final rejection.98 The Centre’s impression is that most of them might fall into the category of being “unreturnable,” including stateless persons living irregularly in the greater Oslo area.99 2.3 Qualitative analysis of stateless persons in Norway 2.3.1 Introduction While UNHCR would have liked to conduct participatory assessments100 with stateless persons living in Norway to enhance its understanding of the background and current situation of this population, it was not possible within the scope of this research project. This was due to the fact that the stateless population in Norway can neither be easily identified as a group, nor can their contact details be readily obtained in order to call individual stateless persons for interviews or focus group discussions, using UNHCR’s participatory assessment methodology. Instead, a questionnaire was sent to a number of stakeholders likely to come into contact with stateless persons in Norway. The goals were: a) to obtain a picture of the human face of statelessness in Norway from the viewpoint of stateless persons themselves; b) to identify the stakeholders likely to have information about stateless persons in Norway, who would be interviewed and c) to analyze the origins of stateless persons in contact with specific stakeholders, as well as the likely causes of their statelessness. The stakeholders selected to receive the questionnaire work in different sectors, but all provide support in various forms. They included emergency shelters for women and children; free legal assistance for immigrants, especially women; and counseling on Norwegian society and social services for immigrants and other groups likely to include immigrants.101 Most of the stakeholders responded that they had not come across stateless persons in their work. For that reason, the following information is mostly drawn from the four organizations that reported to have had contact with stateless persons: the Norwegian Centre against Racism, NOAS, NOSP, and the Health Centre for Undocumented Immigrants. As discussed above, stateless persons in Norway usually appear in a migratory context. Their experiences with judicial and administrative processes has mostly been in relation to an application for asylum or a 96 The Statistics provided by the Health Centre for Undocumented Immigrants covers the period from 27 October to 30 June 2012. 97 Statistics provided by the Health Centre for Undocumented Immigrants. It has to be kept in mind that the given statistics do not necessarily show a population living in Norway at a later date, since there is no guarantee that the patients were still present in Norway. 98 The last third of the patients are foreigners that have never been registered or have overstayed their expired visa or residence permit. 99 Health Centre for Undocumented Immigrants, Meeting 23 August 2012. 100 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR Tool for Participatory Assessment in Operations, May 2006, First edition, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/462df4232.html 101 See Annex II for the questionnaire and list of recipients. UNHCR STOCKHOLM, OCTOBER 2015 25