3.4 Published statistics: enforcement and compliance Detention As discussed later in this report, the research indicates that stateless persons who are undocumented, do not have the opportunity to regularise their stay on the basis of their statelessness and, consequently, are particularly vulnerable to arbitrary detention and, further, that there are gaps in the legal regime which could protect stateless persons in the UK from arbitrary detention.96 Data in respect of immigration detention of stateless persons is therefore particularly important as a mechanism for monitoring this area of concern. The only relevant data available covers 2009 and 2010 and is not very detailed. There is also here a problem in respect of categorisation. The categories included within the definition of stateless person in these figures are: “Stateless Person (Article 1 of 1954 Convention)”; “Refugee – Article 1 of the 1951 Convention”; “Refugee other”; and “Kuwaiti Bidoun”. The data provided therefore conflates stateless persons with refugees. However, the inclusion of a specific group, “Kuwaiti Bidoun”, who are often recognised as stateless97 is beneficial. Nonetheless, categorisation issues limit how much the figures can be relied upon. There are also shortcomings in the data itself which makes it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions. For example, detainees may be recorded more than once if the person has been detained on more than one separate occasion, and the figures also include dependants. Furthermore, the data omits crucial information about the length of time an individual has been detained, and whether that detention is pending removal (as is likely to be the case) or justified upon other grounds. In addition, the data does not tell us the circumstances of the release from detention. Figure 21: People entering detention by country of nationality, sex, place of initial detention and age Total Male Female Total adult Total child Adult asylum detainees detainees detainees detainees detainees detainees 2009 2010 Stateless 58 52 6 58 0 37 Other or unknown 33 27 6 30 3 2 Stateless 53 47 6 52 1 34 Other or unknown 24 17 7 24 0 3 Source: Published Immigration Statistics: April – June 2011, Table 3 of detention statistics. 52 96 See Chapter 5, section 5.5. 97 See Open Society Justice Initiative, De Jure statelessness in the Real World: Applying the Prato Summary Conclusions, Bingham, L., Harrington-Ready, J and Kohn, S., 2011, available at: http:// www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/articles_publications/publications/prato-20110302/pratostatelessness-20110303.pdf p. 21. Mapping statelessness