or exploitative situations. Indeed, a 2017 study by the British Red Cross highlighted that many unreturnable people with no status are vulnerable to exploitation.36 A 2020 UNHCR Study on stateless persons in the Czech Republic also found that the absence of legal status for stateless persons made them prone to exploitation.37 The existence of the SDP is therefore of crucial importance to protecting those who are stateless from harm within the UK and is not merely an administrative matter. And whilst the UK has demonstrated good practice in introducing it, further progress is needed. UNHCR’s recent audit has highlighted that there are still concerns with policy and decision-making in the SDP. This can result in stateless persons going unrecognised and can exacerbate the protection concerns they may be facing. In particular, UNHCR’s audit highlights concern over the lack of a requirement to interview all statelessness leave applicants. This finding was also echoed in this study, and many of the interviewees explained that they felt that the authorities had forgotten the human face behind their applications for statelessness leave. They said they felt this because the Home Office had not given them a chance to present their story in an interview. The interviewees understood that there are some who may take advantage of the procedure, but they emphasised that if they just had the chance to talk to the Home Office in person about their situation, they could show that they are credible, which would hopefully speed up the process. They therefore all suggested that interviews should be a standard part of the application process.38 Their suggestions were in line with UNHCR’s guidance which considers interviews to be a fundamental procedural guarantee which provide an important source of evidence in statelessness claims.39 In this research, of the four with statelessness leave, two had an interview as part 36 of their application. One was amongst the first applicants to the SDP in 2014 and he described this interview as more of an interrogation rather than a joint effort to find a solution to his situation. Some interviewees in this research felt let down by the UK Government. They felt that the Government was responsible for their predicament. For example, in one case the Home Office had lost his original passport and in another, the British High Commission abroad had issued him a British passport in error. One noted that “the [Home Office] acknowledged the error but then didn’t do anything to resolve it, and I don’t think that’s fair.” Another felt let down because he felt that he was intentionally given poor legal advice which led to his stateless situation, and the Government had not assisted him in rectifying it. Interestingly, some of those interviewed were hoping to go home. One stated that he begged to go home. Another was even waiting at the airport for a plane to return but was stopped and was not allowed to board because his country of origin was not willing to accept him. He stated: “I really needed to go back home…I went to the embassy and asked them why I cannot go back home. There is still no answer”. All interviewees seemed frustrated by their situations and explained that the problem was that they had nowhere to go. ‘Not a lot of people appreciate what they have – there is so much taken for granted. If everything was sorted I could make so much of myself right now.’ - Paul British Red Cross, Can’t Stay. Can’t Go, 2017, available from: https://www.refworld.org/docid/591965984.html 37 UNHCR, Faces of Statelessness in the Czech Republic, December 2020, available from: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5fcfc3234.html 38 UNHCR is not aware of how many overall cases the Home Office interviews, however, in UNHCR’s audit, of the 530 cases UNHCR were given to select from to audit, only 10 39 had interviews conducted, an interview rate of just under 2%. See UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, Part Two: Procedures on the Determination of Statelessness, 30 June 2014, available from: https://www.unhcr.org/dach/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/04/CH-UNHCR_Handbook-on-Protection-of-Stateless-Persons.pdf 21