do have a nationality or the right of residence elsewhere and who can depart. Furthermore, the lack of such a procedure prevents a more accurate estimate of the number and profile of stateless persons in the UK. While there is the opportunity for stateless persons to apply for a 1954 Convention Travel Document, in practice this is accessible to only a small number of stateless persons, as any applicant is required to have six months leave to remain before being eligible to apply. 4 Stateless persons for whom the UK is the most appropriate country to provide a long-term solution are no longer granted leave to remain in the UK. Between 1998 and 2002, stateless persons were granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK as a matter of policy, in cases where the UK was the most appropriate country of residence. By 2002, however, the policy had changed and applications for leave to remain on the basis of statelessness are now refused. This contrasts with the practice of a number of other European States and leaves many stateless persons with no option but to seek asylum. If their asylum claim is refused, they are expected to leave the UK in common with all other unsuccessful asylum-seekers. Any further support and accommodation is conditional on their cooperation with voluntary return, regardless of whether there is any country of nationality to which they can return. 5 Stateless persons in the UK who have not been granted leave to remain are at risk of human rights infringements. Stateless persons without leave to remain in the UK interviewed for this research described the consequences of their legal limbo. Some told of long periods without food and nights spent on the streets. Several were separated from their immediate family, including one father who has not seen his four children in 10 years. Many were subject to lengthy periods in immigration detention, with no prospect of removal. As one person told our researchers: “I have no ID, no work, no education, no freedom”. Another interviewee likened his plight to that of “a bird with nowhere to rest on the ground, but which can’t spend his whole life in the sky”. 8 Mapping statelessness