Legal briefing on the rights of stateless Palestinians in the UK September 2025 Occupied Territories’. For a detailed overview of the most recent data and critical analysis, see the Statelessness Index: United Kingdom. In addition to receiving protection as refugees or leave to remain as a stateless person, stateless Palestinians also have rights deriving from the UK’s international obligations to prevent and reduce statelessness. As a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961 Convention), the UK must grant nationality to children born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless. Under Article 32 of the 1954 Convention, it also has obligations to facilitate the naturalisation of stateless people in its territory. For further information on the provisions to prevent childhood statelessness in the UK, see the Statelessness Index: United Kingdom and the report Invisible Kids: Childhood statelessness in the UK. 1.3. Palestinians as stateless persons Regardless of the procedure, it is important to determine if the applicant for protection is stateless. In asylum claims, identifying statelessness is essential to determining a person’s asylum claim as it may be a relevant factor in establishing a form of persecution or contribute to a risk of harm. This includes, for example, where denial or withdrawal of nationality is linked to persecution as a member of a particular ethnic or social group (e.g. being Palestinian), or where the denial of economic and social rights on the basis of nationality status is so severe that it amounts to persecution. Identifying statelessness is also relevant for procedural reasons, as the fear of persecution for stateless persons must be assessed in relation to former countries of habitual residence, rather than in relation to a person’s country of origin. If a stateless Palestinian is unsuccessful in an asylum claim, they may also be eligible for leave to remain in the UK on the basis of their statelessness. Before outlining the various routes to protection or leave to remain available in the UK, it is therefore vital to establish why most Palestinians should be considered stateless under international law, unless they hold the nationality of another country. 1.3.1. The concept of statelessness To be stateless is to not be considered a national by any State under the operation of its law. For the millions of stateless people around the world, this can result in widespread denial of human rights and violates the universal human right to a nationality. When not granted the protection they are due under international law, stateless individuals face challenges accessing basic rights, including the right to work or to access public funds or healthcare, and remain at risk of arbitrary detention and excluded from social, civic and political life.20 20 Asylum Aid, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK, University of Liverpool Law Clinic, JustRight Scotland, ENS, Stateless People in the UK: At Risk of Legal Limbo, In Need of Protection (2025). See also ENS, Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention: An Agenda for Change (2017). 7