Addressing statelessness in Europe’s refugee response ‘Bidoon from Kuwait are almost always registered as Iraqi, but this is not a problem as we correct it’. (Greek official) Municipal authorities in both Serbia and the Netherlands demonstrated an understanding of aspects of statelessness as it related to their work, but in the case of the Netherlands in particular, lacked awareness of - and willingness to consider - the bigger picture: ‘I do not look at the numbers, this is not interesting for my job. We look at each case individually, not at the bigger picture.’ (Dutch official) ‘I don't see what problems stateless persons face. That refugees and migrants have problems (especially with obtaining legal stay), that is clear to me, but what kind of problems stateless persons have in addition to this is unknown for me.’ (Dutch official) The Serbian official demonstrated knowledge gained from experience working with the country’s in situ population of Roma at risk of statelessness and could already accurately identify potential future challenges among newer refugee populations due to the lack of a statelessness determination procedure and barriers to birth registration. In the case of Dutch officials, a profoundly bureaucratic approach emerged. They described the formalistic constraints of the Dutch population registration system (BRP), appearing resigned to its inflexibility and unquestioning of their role as implementers of the rules, rigid as they may be: ‘For us it doesn't matter if someone is stateless or not, it is part of the registration in the BRP that you have to determine what the nationality is… In the end, we are bound to the law, this is the fate of the official.’ (Dutch official) One acknowledged that this ‘overly administrated system’ was ‘not easy’ and created challenges, suggesting that in trying to meet strict requirements applicants may feel obliged to ‘produce documents’ (implying these might be falsified or invalid). Another took a different view, justifying the strict rules on the grounds that individuals had an incentive to claim to be stateless: ‘…someone simply wants to be registered as stateless because then they can naturalise to Dutch citizenship quicker and they obtain a number of other rights, so this is for us a reason to look at this group carefully.’ (Dutch official) Lack of procedural clarity Procedural challenges were identified in all contexts, although these varied in nature. Greek officials noted the issue of mis-recording nationality on registration, and one implied this was intentional. Some described the difficulty and implications of later requesting to change nationality status, for example where cases are transferred from the islands to the mainland, the potential impact on Dublin or family reunion procedures, or the implications for credibility assessment. Procedures for 13