To the states that have received Nicaraguan individuals who have become stateless, we recommend that they: • Adopt special, simplified and expedited procedures to provide them with protection. These measures should presume their status as stateless refugees and include their families as beneficiaries of protection. Given the particular vulnerability caused by statelessness, it is essential that the procedures envisaged guarantee access to social and economic rights from the moment individuals apply for protection, and provide durable solutions to their situation, including the acquisition of a nationality and local integration into the community that has received them. We call on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in accordance with its mandate to prevent statelessness and to act to ensure that stateless persons enjoy fundamental human rights, to: • Conduct and disseminate a study on the situation of statelessness among the Nicaraguan population in order to better understand the scope and dimension of the problem, identify the populations affected and their protection needs. This research should include the situation of those who find themselves in a situation of de facto statelessness129 caused by the refusal of the Nicaraguan authorities to renew their expired passports and to issue other identity documents.130 • Prioritise assistance and support to Nicaraguan nationals who have been rendered stateless in the submission of their applications for protection to host states. • Intervene proactively with the authorities of the host states to advocate for the granting of protection to Nicaraguan nationals who have been made stateless. 129. According to UNHCR, statelessness can occur when there is no formal act, but where the practice shows that the state has ceased to consider an individual or group as nationals. For example, by repeatedly refusing to issue or renew their documents without providing justification. UNHCR, Guidelines on statelessness No. 5: Loss and Deprivation of Nationality under Articles 5-9 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Distr. GENERAL HCR/GS/20/05, May 2020, para. 9. 130. O  n this point, the IACHR Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua has received information from individuals who are unable to return to Nicaragua and have faced the State’s refusal to renew their passports and issue their identity documents. IACHR, “IACHR Rejects Ongoing Repression and Human Rights Violations in Nicaragua”, 16 June 2023, available at: https:// www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2023/123.asp FIDH - Exile and civil death 16