and Ukraine, after being recognised as stateless the person must apply for a residence permit rather than being granted one automatically, and in these countries as well as in Hungary the rights attached to it are significantly lower than the standard established by the 1954 Convention. Spain’s SDP is established by Royal Decree, but procedural rules are not set out in law, and in Switzerland the administrative procedure to determine statelessness is not formalised in law. In the United Kingdom, a residence permit is only granted to a person recognised as stateless if some refusal grounds do not apply. In Italy, although there is an administrative and a judicial procedure, the parameters for determining statelessness are not clearly established in law. Some countries have a procedure that aims to determine statelessness, but this does not lead to a dedicated statelessness status. This includes Albania, which introduced an SDP in law in 2021 followed by an instruction to implement and regulate the SDP in June 2023, but there is no information available yet about practice and the instruction does not specify the rights granted. In Belgium, there is a judicial procedure through which statelessness can be determined by the family courts and, since September 2024, an administrative procedure to apply for a residence permit on the grounds of statelessness. However, the judicial procedure does not lead to any protection or rights, and there are notable issues with the administrative procedure, including strict admissibility requirements and limited procedural guarantees. In the Netherlands, a procedure was established in law in 2023 whereby statelessness can be determined by the civil chamber of the Court of The Hague, or by administrative authorities in specified cases of ‘obvious statelessness’. However, it cannot be considered an SDP as recognition does not lead to a dedicated protection status nor any residence rights. Since 2023, Czechia has established a procedure for determining statelessness under the authority of the Ministry of Interior, but it initially only leads to tolerated stay and the protection afforded is very limited. Almost all other countries in the Statelessness Index have mechanisms through which some stateless people may be able to have their statelessness identified ad hoc or access a residence permit and some rights, for example through immigration, international protection, humanitarian, or nationality related procedures. However, their purpose is not to determine statelessness, resulting in significant protection gaps that are further explored in Section 3.3. In Serbia, there is a statelessness status in law but no procedure to determine this. In Portugal, some stateless people may be able to regularise their stay, but not on the basis of statelessness. However, a new law was approved in 2023 establishing that stateless people are entitled to statelessness status and there are ongoing discussions in Parliament to establish the procedure and related rights. 3.1. Key elements of a statelessness determination procedure There are five key elements that must all be in place for an effective statelessness determination procedure to be established, access to protection ensured, and statelessness in the migratory context to be reduced: 17 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Accession to and compliance with relevant international instruments including the 1954 Convention; Availability of information about statelessness and capacity of relevant competent authorities; Effective determination of statelessness; Adequate and rights-based protection status as a consequence of determination; and Facilitated route to naturalisation resolving statelessness. International instruments Information and awareness Statelessness determination Protection status Access to nationality