cooperating in establishing his identity and citizenship. They said his detention for a period longer than six months was thus justified. The Supreme Administrative Court ruled there were grounds to extend M.A.’s detention until 10 December 2012, based on his lack of cooperation, obstruction of the procedure of expulsion and asylum, and abuse of the right to seek asylum. M.A. had already spent nearly twelve months in detention. At the time of the field research carried out for this report (August 2012), there was one stateless person detained at the FRC. Another two were accommodated at the FRC without restriction of their freedom of movement.205 The detained person had been apprehended as he was trying to smuggle cigarettes into Lithuania. Around August 2012, he was subjected to a removal procedure that was prolonged while his country of origin was determining whether to readmit him. The first person accommodated at the FRC was a long-term resident of Lithuania with an “unresolved” legal status. He had previously been destitute and undocumented, and the specialists at the FRC were trying to establish his identity. The second person was an asylum-seeker who had previously been subject to a failed removal procedure, as both his country of origin and his country of long-term residence refused to readmit him. In 2011, a total of eight stateless persons were detained for 48 hours, seven were detained for more than 48 hours, and five were subjected to alternatives to detention. The available data indicates that detention of stateless persons in Lithuania is rather low (Table 5). Nevertheless, some undocumented persons detained in the context of migration or accommodated at the FRC, including “unreturnable” persons and asylum-seekers, are registered by alleged or presumed nationality.206 Some individuals are registered as persons with “unknown” nationality (Figure 6) and may, in fact, be stateless. Official data, thus, may not reflect the true number of stateless persons detained in Lithuania. Also, the data available are not disaggregated by age and gender. Table 5. Number of stateless persons detained and those to whom measures alternative to detention were applied, 2006-2011207 Detained for 48h Alternatives to detention Detained for more than 48h Accommodated at FRC* 2006 11 0 0 0 2007 12 0 0 0 2008 2 3 0 0 2009 3 5 8 0 2010 7 2 0 8 2011 8 5 7 0 2012 - - - - * Without restricting freedom of movement 54 205 All three of them are male. No information on the country of origin of the concerned persons is available. 206 Interview with a representative of the FRC, 17 August 2012. 207 Lithuania, Migration Department of the Ministry of Interior, Migration Yearbook 2006, Vilnius, 2007, p. 77; Migration Yearbook 2007, Vilnius, 2008, p. 68; Migration Yearbook 2008, Vilnius, 2009, p. 85; Migration Yearbook 2009, Vilnius, 2010, p. 88; Migration Yearbook 2010, Vilnius, 2011, p. 106; Migration Yearbook 2011, Vilnius, 2012, p. 77., Migration Yearbook 2012, Vilnius, 2013, p. 80. M A P P I N G S TAT E L E S S N E S S I N L I T H UA N I A

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