Country briefing: Statelessness and refugees in the Netherlands WHY IS STATELESSNESS RELEVANT TO THE FORCED DISPLACEMENT DEBATE IN EUROPE? Statelessness is a hidden problem affecting many refugees arriving in Europe. According to Eurostat, of the four million people who applied for asylum in the EU in 2015-2018, more than 115,000 were recorded as ‘stateless’, of ‘unknown nationality’, or their nationality was recorded as ‘Palestine’. Many more come from countries with problematic nationality laws, such as Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Eritrea or Sudan, where gender discrimination or state succession means they or their children are at risk of statelessness. People affected by statelessness face discrimination if reasonable accommodation is not made for their nationality problems in international protection procedures and the provision of essential services. Most countries in Europe are inadequately prepared to respond: only a handful have procedures in place to determine who is stateless on their territory and grant them the specific rights enshrined in international and regional law with respect to the protection of stateless people and the right to a nationality. WHAT IS THE REFUGEE CONTEXT IN THE NETHERLANDS? The Netherlands is usually considered a destination country by refugees in Europe. Data from the Dutch Government and Eurostat show a gradual decrease in the number of first-time asylum applications since 2015. In 2015, 43,093 applications were lodged compared to 14,716 in 2017. Of these, 120 were submitted by people recorded as ‘stateless’, 310 in 2016 and 2,399 in 2015. 12,869 stateless persons were registered on 1 January 2019 by the national statistics bureau (CBS) compared to 2,005 in 2012. The increase is mainly attributed to stateless refugees from Syria. WHAT IS THE LEGAL SITUATION FOR STATELESS PEOPLE IN THE NETHERLANDS? The Netherlands is state party to all the relevant UN and European statelessness conventions. Although it has reservations to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons (which defines and enshrines the rights to be granted to stateless people), it has committed to removing these. There is no dedicated statelessness determination procedure in the Netherlands, although the parliament is considering legislation in this area in 2019. Currently, there are two possible administrative procedures for a person to register as stateless depending on whether they are legally residing in the country. Identification as a stateless person does not lead to permission to stay, though a legally residing stateless person who registers may have access to a travel document and a facilitated route to naturalisation. The definition of a stateless person in Dutch law is narrower than the 1954 Convention. For more information on statelessness in the Netherlands, see the Statelessness Index country page. WHY IS STATELESSNESS RELEVANT TO THE REFUGEE RESPONSE IN THE NETHERLANDS? There is no fully reliable data on statelessness among refugees in the Netherlands. This is due to the absence of a procedure to determine who is stateless and grant them a residence permit, and the inability of stateless people without a residence permit to register as a stateless person at their Municipality. In addition, there is no data on the number of children born to stateless refugees. Having said this, the number of total stateless persons born in the Netherlands, and registered in the Gemeente, is known. Namely, 1,440 stateless persons born in the Netherlands in the age category 10-14 years old were registered in the CBS on 1 January 2019. The largest population of 1