EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An estimated 10 million people around the world live without any nationality.1 These people are stateless, and are arguably amongst the most vulnerable in the world because they do not have access to the basic rights associated with citizenship of a nation state.2 Research indicates that the majority of stateless people in the UK are undocumented migrants, at risk of human rights violations due to their lack of an immigration status.3 In 2013, the UK Government introduced a Statelessness Determination Procedure (SDP)4 enabling stateless people to apply for recognition of their status as people who are without a nationality and to be granted leave to remain, giving stateless people the right to work and access to public funds. The SDP has been accompanied by policy guidance, last updated in 2019.5 The UK is one of fewer than 25 countries to have such a procedure – introduced to help ensure that the UK Government complies with its international obligations under the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954 Convention), to which it is a signatory. There are serious consequences to incorrectly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 6 Image © UNHCR/Greg Constantine rejecting an application for stateless status. Where these individuals cannot be returned to another country, but remain without a regular immigration status, they risk destitution, homelessness and prolonged immigration detention in the UK6 as well as the denial of the right to identity documents, education, health services and employment.7 It is for these reasons that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, urges the UK government to continue to reinforce the protection function of the SDP in the design and improvement of this system going forward. The United Nations General Assembly entrusts UNHCR with a global mandate for the identification, prevention and reduction of statelessness, and for the international protection of stateless persons.8 In 2018 UNHCR undertook a review into the UK Home Office approach to decisionmaking on applications for leave to remain as stateless person, known as “statelessness leave”. This review was carried out under the Quality Protection Partnership, a joint UNHCR and UK Government collaborative endeavour aimed at improving the quality of Home Office decision-making. UNHCR Global Trends report 2016 www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2016/ Foreword to the UNHCR Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons under the 1954 Convention, 2014 available from: www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/statelessness/53b698ab9/ handbook-protection-stateless-persons.html UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),”Mapping Statelessness in the United Kingdom”, November 2011, available from: www.refworld.org/docid/4ecb6a192.html Immigration Rules part 14: stateless persons www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-14-stateless-persons Home Office Policy Guidance “Stateless leave”, 30 October 2019, available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ file/843704/stateless-leave-guidance-v3.0ext.pdf. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “Mapping Statelessness in the United Kingdom”, November 2011, see note 3 above. Home Office Policy Guidance “Stateless leave”, 30 October 2019, see page 5. General Assembly Resolution 3274 (1974), General Assembly Resolution 50/152 (1996)