arising out of EU law per year, are made to “stateless” persons or persons of “unknown” or “unspecified” nationality. The best sources of data examined were the published Home Office’s immigration statistics and the UK Border Agency management information, obtained on the basis of a data sharing agreement. In particular, some numbers are drawn from more detailed data provided by the Home Office’s Migration Statistics Team, on request, than that normally published. By cross-referencing the published statistics with this more detailed disaggregated data, it has been possible to identify some trends relating to stateless persons coming into contact with immigration control. This is explained below. The data for entry clearance visas in combination with the removals data indicate that there is a population of stateless persons who are able to arrive and depart the UK in accordance with the provisions of immigration law; by obtaining entry clearance and leaving before their period of leave to enter ends. It also demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of stateless persons successfully removed from the UK are removed either at port, presumably after examination of whether they were entitled to leave to enter or remain or, in a much smaller number of cases, after breaching the conditions of their leave to enter or remain. This would suggest that those stateless persons who are granted leave to enter the UK, arriving after obtaining a visa or entry clearance, pose relatively few challenges to immigration control. The asylum statistics show that around 150-200 asylum-seekers each year are identified as stateless by the UK Border Agency. Analysis of two data sources in relation to grant and refusal rates for asylum applications made by stateless persons or those of “unknown” nationality indicate that stateless persons are more frequently recognised as being in need of international protection than the average amongst the asylum-seeking population. Of these, a much higher proportion than the average are granted asylum, at an average of 50%. This leaves up to 100 stateless persons each year being refused asylum and according to numbers identified from the removals statistics, barely 10% of these stateless persons refused asylum are being successfully removed from the UK each year. Without a means to determine their status in the UK, it can be concluded that the remaining individuals are left in limbo, that is to say that they are unable to leave the UK, but they are not granted leave to enter or remain even though they have been identified as stateless. This analysis is supported by the findings in Chapter 4. in the United Kingdom 59