PRACTICAL GUIDE ON NATIONALITY 6.1. National protection Every state is responsible for ensuring that the rights of its nationals are respected. The need for international protection only arises when this national protection is denied or unavailable. National protection may be understood in two ways. 1. The basic general protection that is granted to all nationals of a state and that is limited to the right to return to, reside and be protected against refoulement from the country of nationality. This national protection is generally available to applicants who hold a nationality and who are acknowledged as being nationals by the relevant state authorities. However, stateless applicants, including applicants who hold a nationality that is not acknowledged by the national authorities, may not be able to benefit from these basic rights. In such cases, they would not be protected by a state within this first meaning of national protection because they would not be legally entitled to it. The deprivation of protection within this first meaning may also be sufficiently serious as to amount to persecution depending on the individual circumstances (see Sections 7.1. Deprivation, denial or forced attribution of nationality as a form of persecution or serious harm and 7.2. Absence of recognition of an ex lege nationality as a form of persecution or serious harm). This assessment needs to be done on a case-by-case basis as nationals may encounter restrictions to those basic rights of citizenship, while a stateless applicant or an applicant who holds the nationality but which is not acknowledged by the national authorities may, in practice, benefit from those rights depending on the general and personal circumstances. 2. The availability of the national protection that is provided by the actors of protection in the country of origin within the meaning of Article 7 QR ( 87), or the availability of an internal protection alternative, within the meaning of Article 8 QR ( 88). It is relevant to assess this type of national protection in all cases where an applicant has substantiated the claim that they have a fear of persecution or that they face a real risk of serious harm, regardless of whether the applicant has a nationality or is stateless. Stateless applicants may have requested or have had a reasonable possibility to request the protection that is available to any person, including non-nationals, under the state’s jurisdiction of their country of former habitual residence. You would have to rely on specific COI on the way authorities of the country of former habitual residence ensure the respect of the rights of non-nationals and, in particular, of stateless foreigners that are in a comparable situation to that of the applicant. Consider all relevant personal circumstances in addition to the statelessness of the applicant. (87) As well as Article 7 QD (recast). (88) As well as Article 8 QD (recast). 57