4. STATISTICAL OVERVIEW OF STATELESS PERSONS IN IRELAND The gathering of statistics in Ireland is challenging as no one office of the Department of Justice is able to provide all the statistics pertaining to stateless persons. Instead, different sources provide statistics on different groups of stateless persons where available. In July 2018, the then Minister for Justice and Equality, Charles Flanagan responded to a parliamentary question on the availability of statistics:  “Statelessness results from the complex interaction of many legal and other factors. There is no specific determination process for recognition of stateless persons in Ireland; claims of statelessness can arise at any point in the immigration and protection processes and the numbers involved are very low. These cases are frequently disposed of without recourse to a determination of statelessness through procedures (e.g. permission to remain) set out under the Immigration Acts or International Protection Acts. Such cases are not centralised in a single process or section of the immigration service and, as such, statistics on stateless persons are not available in the way sought by the Deputy.”98 When seeking statistics for the purposes of this report UNHCR requested an update on the number of stateless persons in the various units of the ISD in the Department of Justice since the 2014 scoping paper on statelessness was produced. According to the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) no stateless persons were resettled as programme refugees in Ireland from 2014 to May 2021. However, it was noted that 11 Palestinians have been resettled through the IRPP, 10 of whom arrived in 2016 and 1 further person arrived in 2017.99 In relation to applications by stateless asylum seekers to the IPO, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee reported in a recent parliamentary question response that “during the period 2017-to 2021 (end of October) there have been less than 6 applications in respect of persons who specifically claimed that they were stateless when they lodged their applications for international protection.”100 Nevertheless, from the analysis of cases reviewed above in chapter 3.2.2.4 above, there are more stateless persons applying for asylum than those officially recorded for statistical purposes by both the IPO and IPAT. The practice seems to suggest that a stateless asylum seeker’s country of former habitual residence is listed as their nationality on international protection applications. The reason for this is not entirely clear and may be due to various reasons, including that the asylum seekers themselves do not identify themselves as stateless and just state the country they previously lived in, or IPO staff conducting preliminary interviews are not fully aware of what constitutes statelessness and the importance of accurately recording an applicant as stateless during the asylum procedure. In 2021 UNHCR conducted training with the IPO staff involved in the registration of international protection applications at the preliminary interview on various protection matters, including statelessness, so it is hoped that this will assist with the correct identification of stateless, or potentially stateless, applicants in future. 98 Parliamentary question response No. 342- 344 on 10 July 2018 by former Minister for Justice and Equality Charles Flanagan, available at: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2018-07-10/343/ 99 Palestinians are a special category of stateless persons who also fall under the mandate of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). 100 Parliamentary question response by Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee to question 446, 7 December 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3uFdp5t UNHCR 27