7 | PROTECTING STATELESS PERSONS FROM ARBITRARY DETENTION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Ousman is a middle-aged man born in Guinea to a Guinean father and Gambian mother. Ousman and his family lived in Gambia before he came to the UK. In the UK he was convicted for working illegally and, after serving his one-year sentence, Ousman was subject to immigration detention for three and a half consecutive years. Despite his cooperation with removal efforts and the fact that neither the Guinean nor the Gambian embassy recognised him as a national, the HO kept making futile efforts to deport him while keeping him in immigration detention. He challenged the legality of his detention and was awarded damages for unlawful detention. His solicitor intends to make a statelessness application on his behalf. Akram is a Palestinian in his forties who fled the West Bank and Iraq and then drifted through several countries before arriving in the UK. He lived in limbo for many years in the UK and spent two months in immigration detention after serving a conviction for possession of a false document. Akram was convicted after he turned himself into the police hoping that at least in prison he would have a place to sleep. After his release he made an application for statelessness leave and was granted protection. He is now married, has a family and works as a baker. Okeke has always lived in the UK and was probably born in the UK although he has no birth certificate. He believes that his parents are British but he lost contact with them as a teenager after fleeing many years of domestic abuse. He is in his thirties. Okeke has faced a life of destitution and isolation in the UK due to the lack of documents and the abuse he suffered as a child. After serving a criminal conviction for theft, his immigration detention started in April 2016 as the HO sought to deport him. Despite being classified by the HO as a person of ‘unknown nationality’, they attempted to deport him to Nigeria on the basis that he has a Nigerian name. Okeke was released in August 2016 on the grounds that his detention was not reasonable anymore. His solicitor intends to make a statelessness application on his behalf. Muhammed is a Sahrawi in his late thirties who came to the UK as a minor, hoping to find a better life than he had in a refugee camp in Algeria.1 His asylum claim was refused and he has been detained for immigration purposes several times for a total duration of nearly four years over the past eighteen years. The last episode of immigration detention started in May 2015 despite the HO accepted that he is a Sahrawi and therefore that there are no prospects of removal. The immigration judge ordered his release only on the 15th of August 2016 (after several bail attempts) subject to the condition that he HO finds accommodation for him. It is unclear what measures if any, the HO was trying to take to remove him from the UK. His statelessness application was refused due to a prior criminal offence and he is being helped by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with his legal representation. Muhammed suffers from mental health issues.