Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned    9 and Carter 2016: 15), “A State’s refusal to recognise a person, its continued silence, or its demands for ever more evidence may eventually constitute a failure to consider the person as a national under the operation of its law.” Section 4.6.1 of the Home Office (2016h: 16) instruction on statelessness recognises that “where an individual has provided evidence that they have made an application to the national authority only to find more and more evidence requested by the State in question, combined with long delays”, this “in practice amounts to a denial of recognition”. The majority of those who make a Stateless application are refused asylum seekers. However, some applicants have never made an asylum claim and there is no requirement to do so. There is no fee to pay to submit a Stateless application, but the form is currently available only in English. With the exception of Scotland, legal aid is generally not available in the UK for advising, representing or assisting someone who wishes to make an application for leave to remain as a stateless person, despite such applications often being factually and legally complex. Legal advisors can apply for exceptional case funding, but this involves a significant amount of work for the legal advisor and they will receive limited remuneration only when exceptional case funding is granted (Woodhouse and Carter 2016). The burden of proof rests with the applicant in the statelessness procedure and they must prove a negative: that he or she is not considered a national of any State. The standard of proof is also higher than the reasonable degree standard applied in refugee status determination. While an application is pending, the individual has no right to work and, currently, access to only basic support may be available under Section 4. If the application is successful, the person can be granted leave to remain for 30 months, after which they can apply for a further 30 months’ leave. After five years, a stateless person can make an application for indefinite leave to remain. If the application is unsuccessful, there is no freestanding right of appeal to the independent Firsttier Tribunal. Rejected applicants can only apply for administrative review or judicial review, or make a new application. The Red Cross submitted a freedom of information request to the Home Office related to Stateless applications. According to the reply received, between 1 April 2013 and 30 June 2016, a total of 1,662 people lodged a Stateless application (Draper 2016). Of these, 1,096 had previously applied for asylum. As of 30 June 2016, the total number of people who had a decision on their Stateless application was 854 and 41 people have been granted leave to remain on their Stateless application (Draper 2016). 1.4 The suffering and limbo facing those who cannot be returned Refused asylum seekers who, through no fault of their own, cannot be returned to their country of origin risk falling into crisis. Without the right to work and with limited or no statutory support, the Red Cross sees people every week who are in desperate situations stemming from their position in society and the world as a person without immigration status. Yet the option of returning to their country of origin is not open to them.