3.2 Current available information about stateless people in Australia 3.2.1 Number of stateless people in Australia As a party to the 1954 Convention, Australia is expected to report data on the number of stateless people in its territory annually to the UNHCR (the UN body mandated to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness) while protecting the rights of stateless individuals. Australia has historically routinely not provided data to the UNHCR, or reported ‘zero’ stateless people in Australia. In 2017, for the first time, Australia reported ‘52’ stateless people in Australia.50 In 2018 Australia reported ‘132’ stateless people to the UNHCR.’51 Publicly available Australian government statistics for the same periods clearly suggest higher numbers of stateless people known to the Australian government within the immigration system.52 For example, government statistics indicate that as at 31 December 2017, there were a minimum of 4,567 stateless people known to immigration authorities within the population cohorts of immigration detention (52 stateless people in community detention), the ‘Illegal Maritime Arrival Legacy Caseload’ (2,221 stateless people with a visa application submitted to the Department of Immigration) and ‘Illegal Maritime Arrivals on a Bridging Visa E’ (2,294 stateless people).53 This does not include potential stateless populations within the ‘Onshore Protection Visa Processing’ cohort, the ‘Onshore Humanitarian Program’ cohort, ‘Offshore Humanitarian Program’ cohort or ‘Asylum Seeker’ cohort (publicly available statistics for each of these cohorts in unavailable for the 2017 period), or the 2017 ‘Migration Program’ (statelessness statistics not specified in the Department of Immigration’s Report for this period).54 The discrepancy between the number of stateless people in Australia as at 31 December 2017 reported to UNHCR (52), and publicly available government data (4,567) therefore indicates two key findings – • There were considerably more than 52 stateless people in Australia in 2017 (as reported to UNHCR); • It is highly likely that there were more than 4,567 stateless people (as recorded by the Australian government in various reports) in Australia in 2017, given that numerous relevant statistical reports do not provide a breakdown of data by nationality / statelessness. Figure 2: Number of reported stateless people in Australia in 2017 UNHCR statistics compared to Australian Government Immigration and Migration report statistics 22 Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness | Understanding Statelessness in Australia