8.3 Statistics As short-term measures, UNHCR makes the following recommendations: • Establish within all statistical code lists a separate code for a “stateless person”. Since stateless persons are particularly vulnerable, all code lists across all registers should only operate with a single category of “stateless” in order to make the category more visible and, thus, avoid overall marginalisation of the group. This also entails avoiding merging this code with other residual codes. It is also advisable to minimise the use of the “unknown” category as it lacks any probative value and represents an inadequate tool to accurately identify stateless persons. • Methodologically define the category of “stateless person” to facilitate its determination by civil servants and police officers. It is advisable to ensure that the relevant persons be recorded under the code “stateless person”. Even where the code currently exists in certain statistical forms, it is often incorrectly used and results in further discrepancies with the data. UNHCR recommends to methodologically guide the persons responsible for collecting and entering data in the statistical records of foreign nationals and increase their awareness of the statelessness phenomenon. • Regularly publish information on the number of applications in the statelessness determination procedure pursuant to Section 8 (d) of the Asylum Act; Monthly statistical reports on international protection published by the MoI should incorporate the numbers of applications lodged in the procedure for the determination of statelessness, which is to be handled and decided by the same decision-makers as in asylum matters. This step would shed more light on the number of stateless persons or persons with unresolved nationality in a migratory situation, whose legal status remains unresolved. As long-term measures, UNHCR further recommends to: • reliably record complete statistical data regarding the statelessness determination procedure. Only an effective and clearly defined mechanism for the identification of stateless persons in a migratory situation with a set of complete statistical records devoted thereto, can sustainably contribute to the correction of some existing limits in respect of the statistical record of statelessness in the migratory context. • conduct a complex research focused on in situ102 statelessness in the Czech Republic In order to complement this study whose focus was confined mainly to statelessness in a migratory context, research on in situ statelessness should be commissioned by the government. Only reliable information and data on in situ statelessness addressing both its causes and extent can reliably show the full scope of the practically invisible phenomenon of statelessness. The more complex study should approach settled communities of immigrants and their second generation, i.e. children born in the Czech Republic as well as ethnic minorities whose access to information and authorities may be limited. 102 52 Meaning “in their own country” or the country where they were born. As explained in the UNHCR´s Handbook (para. 58), the phrase “own country” is taken from Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its interpretation by the UN Human Rights Committee. Faces of Statelessness in the Czech Republic