4. RISKS AND CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING SDPs 4.1. Determining statelessness and refugee status Statelessness can be both a cause and a consequence of forced migration.81 Many refugees come from countries where discrimination in nationality laws, state succession, or deprivation of nationality practices, can mean they or their children are stateless or at risk of statelessness.82 Statelessness can be critical at different stages of the asylum process, affecting the assessment of a claim for international protection as well as access to family reunification, resettlement, and inclusion measures (as well as the possibility of return), because stateless people are unlikely to have documentary proof of their identity and family links.83 It also affects the nationality rights of children born to refugees. Stateless people are at risk of discrimination and rights violations if their statelessness is not identified and acted upon within international protection procedures. If a stateless person applies for asylum, it is important to determine both their claim for international protection and their claim of statelessness. Each application should be assessed and both types of status should be explicitly recognised so that even if international protection ceases, the person remains entitled to protection as a stateless person.84 This also helps to prevent arbitrary or unlawful detention, which can occur if a stateless person, who has no country to which they can return, is refused international protection (or their protection status ceases), and their statelessness has not been identified and determined.85 It also enables States to comply with their international obligations to prevent and reduce statelessness, including to ensure all children born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless acquire a nationality,86 and to facilitate the naturalisation of stateless people on their territory.87 Statelessness determination should be conducted either in parallel with or following the refugee status determination, with due regard to the primacy of the asylum claim and the principle of confidentiality for refugees in statelessness determination procedures.88 In practice, this means that all SDP applicants should be informed of the importance of raising potential refugee-related concerns, and States must not disclose the identity of a refugee or asylum-seeker to the authorities of countries with which they have a link. If enquiries with authorities that could compromise confidentiality are required to determine an applicant’s statelessness, the statelessness claim should be suspended until the refugee status determination is concluded.89 4.2. Improving awareness and identification of statelessness To improve the identification of statelessness and referral to SDPs to enable States to comply with their international obligations, frontline officials must be trained to identify and record statelessness and make appropriate referrals to relevant procedures.90 Asylum, immigration, civil registry, and other public officials often lack the awareness, information, and capacity needed to identify statelessness and take appropriate action. If statelessness is missed or nationality is mis-recorded, it can present obstacles and barriers that later lead to human rights violations. States are therefore recommended to cooperate with UNHCR,91 civil society, and stateless activists and community representatives to provide adequate training and resources