Statelessness Working Paper Series 2017/04 Dublin system. Indeed, according to the Dublin III Regulation, asylum seekers that registered their application in one country are usually prevented do so in another country and will face return to the first country of application.36 Finally, the fifth status an asylum seeker can hold is that of a stateless person. This status can be combined with one of the four statuses mentioned above. As highlighted earlier, a large number of persons in Syria are stateless and it is therefore likely that a proportion of those fleeing the country will be stateless. The CGRS is not competent to recognise a person as stateless but can only issue official documents, such as marriage, death or birth certificates, to an already recognised stateless person.37 In order for his or her status to be recognised, a stateless person must start a procedure before the Court of First Instance, who is competent to deal with matters of civil status and nationality.38 The burden of proof is on the applicant. The judge usually only considers the legislation of the country in which the person is born, the country in which he stayed or the country of which his or her parents hold their nationality in order to determine the statelessness of the applicant.39 Only persons who have been recognised through this procedure hold official status as stateless persons. Proving statelessness is difficult since it is a negative process, as one needs to prove he does not hold any nationality. Moreover, the procedure being a legal one, it might take time to obtain the recognition of statelessness in Belgium. Therefore, despite being stateless, some persons will not benefit from the advantages of stateless persons as those are only granted to recognised stateless persons. It is important to note that in Belgium the recognition of statelessness does not provide a right of residence in the country, thus the possibility to combine the status of recognized stateless person as well as a of migrant in irregular stay. The next section considers how Belgian legislation on statelessness prevention for children born in Belgium applies to each of the legal statuses asylumseekers parents of these children could hold in Belgium. 4. The Belgian Legal Framework on Statelessness Prevention at Birth This section first presents the Belgian legal framework relevant for statelessness prevention at birth and related jurisprudence. Secondly, it looks at the specific application of Belgian legislation for each of the statuses an asylum seeker could hold in Belgium. 4.1. Legal Framework Article 10(1) of the Belgian Nationality Code (BNC) provides that a child born in Belgium who would be otherwise stateless at any point of time before he is 18 or emancipated40 is Belgian.41 Article 10(4) BNC specifies that such Belgian nationality acquired will only be lost upon acquisition of another nationality before the child is 18 or emancipated.42 However, Article 10 BNC was amended by Law of 27 December 200643 and a new provision, Article 10(2) BNC, was added. The provision reads: 36 Regulation 604/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person, [2013] OJ L 180/31. 37 CGRS, Apatrides, http://www.cgra.be/fr/apatrides. 38 Service International de Recherche , d’Education et d’Action Sociale (Siéras), Analyses et études: Quelques principes et questions pratiques sur l’apatridie (2004), http://www.sireas.be/publications/analyse09-2004.pdf. 39 Ibid. 40 This term refers to a legal mechanism through which a minor is freed from control by their parents or guardians’ 41 Belgium. Code de la Nationalité Belge (Belgian Nationality Code [BNC]), 1984, Article 10(1). 42 Belgium. BNC, Article 10(4). 43 Belgium, Loi portant des dispositions diverses (I), 27 December 2006, Article 380. 6