In addition, in respect of the details of passengers entering the UK, the information is derived
from landing cards that the passenger completes and submits.
The “unknown or other” nationality grouping is described as “admissions with no identifiable
nationality”. It includes six “nationality” categories derived from the databases:62
1) Those mis-recorded as British citizens;
2) Nationality currently unknown;
3) Unspecified nationality;
4) Nationality not recorded;
5) United Nations agency or United Nations organisation, and;
6) United Nations other
The “stateless” category is not given a description or a definition.63 It includes seven
categories:
1) Officially stateless;
2) Kuwaiti Bidoun;
3) Refugee – Other;
4) Refugee (Article 1 of the 1951 Convention);
5) Stateless person (Article 1 of the 1954 Convention);
6) Stateless,64 and;
7) Northern Cyprus.65
These categories raise a number of issues. First, it appears that a number of them are clearly
similar and would benefit from consolidation.
Secondly, the inclusion of some categories of people who are not stateless risks significant
over-counting in respect of a number of datasets. In particular those identified as “Refugee
– Article 1 of the 1951 Convention” within the grouping of “stateless” is highly problematic.
Although some refugees may be stateless, many will not be.66 The inclusion of this category
therefore causes a conflation of the stateless and refugee populations which should be kept
distinct.
Amongst certain data sets examined below this can result in an inaccurate inflation of those
who are identified as stateless. It is important to note that these categories are still the ones
used under “stateless” in the 2011 statistics (which contain supporting tables that go back
as far as, in some cases, 2001). Consequently, this problem remains unresolved. Following
discussions between the research team and officials in Migration Statistics Team at the Home
Office, a way forward was identified to try to address this issue of categorisation within the
published statistics as soon as possible, with UNHCR’s involvement.
32
62
Detailed in an email from Migration Statistics Team to the researchers dated 10 June 2011.
63
When the researchers investigated this, no member of UKBA staff including case owners, statistics
teams or policy staff could provide a definition or description being used.
64
This is a historic category from the early 2000s that is no longer used but is present in data from
earlier years.
65
This category was removed for the 2011 published data.
66
See for example the definition that UNHCR uses in its statistical publications, UNHCR,
UNHCR Global Trends 2010, June 2011, p. 37, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/
docid/4e01b00e2.html.
Mapping statelessness