Addressing statelessness in Europe’s refugee response OVERVIEW OF THE CHALLENGES You are tired, and you want to go somewhere to save yourself, but there is nowhere to go. -- Kuwaiti bidoon interviewed in the Netherlands This section provides a process-based overview of the challenges emerging from the research. Each country faces its own specific challenges, but five key common areas in which statelessness is impacting on the forced migration context in Europe are highlighted here. Many of these relate to issues that have been explored by ENS and its members from a statelessness lens, including the lack of statelessness specific protection systems in Europe v, the prevention of childhood statelessness vi, and the risk of arbitrary detention of stateless people. vii Building on this, the #StatelessJourneys project for the first time approaches these issues from the perspective of forced migration trends in Europe, examining the impact of statelessness on the refugee experience and the European response to forced migration through this specific lens. Registration Failure to identify and register statelessness on arrival leads to registration with imputed or ‘unknown’ nationality. The lack of a procedure to identify and register stateless people on arrival is leading to registration with either imputed or ‘unknown’ nationality. Reasons for this included that there is limited awareness of statelessness among officials; most States do not have a statelessness determination procedure to which officials can refer individuals if they claim to be stateless; there is a lack of available information about who may be stateless or at risk of statelessness, and a lack of training and tools to facilitate identification and registration. Concerning practices stemming from this failure to identify statelessness included officials conflating country of origin with country of nationality or recording an imputed nationality based on language or accent, or new arrivals feeling pressurised to ‘produce’ a nationality on demand. In some countries, appealing an incorrect assessment of nationality is not possible; in others, the process to amend an incorrect nationality record can be complex. Not identifying statelessness means that stateless people will not be afforded their rights under international law, nor will their nationality status be factored into subsequent treatment by the authorities. Imputed nationality can also have specific consequences with regards to return, for example, or preventing childhood statelessness. Refugee Status Determination Statelessness being missed or inadequately addressed in international protection procedures may lead to delays or a higher risk that protection is refused. The failure to identify and register statelessness does not only affect the prospects of nationality problems being addressed but can also have an impact on the outcome of refugee status determination procedures. It was reported in some countries that the lack of identification can lead to a higher risk of refugee protection being refused. Reasons for this included that doubts about a 3