Why Union Law Can And Should Protect Stateless Persons 119 sufficient protection and access to rights in line with the 1954 Convention.68 In the Netherlands, stateless persons who can substantiate their inability to leave the Netherlands due no fault of their own, can in theory obtain the socalled ‘no-fault’ residence permit (buitenschuld-vergunning).69 In practice, however, ‘no-fault’ residence permits are only sporadically issued, and statelessness of the applicants is not taken into account when deciding on the application.70 In Poland, permission for tolerated stay (zgoda na pobyt tolerowany) can be granted to a stateless person against whom a deportation order cannot be executed,71 but the requirement of a prior attempted deportation, which needs to be initiated by state authorities, significantly inhibits access to this procedure. The last decade has brought a number of positive developments in the protection regimes for stateless persons in the EU. By now, all but four EU Member States have acceded to or ratified the 1954 Convention,72 and a majority has ratified or acceded to the 1961 Convention.73 There is a pending commitment from 2012 by the EU Member States who have not yet done so to ratify the 1954 Convention and ‘to consider’ ratifying the 1961 Convention.74 No less significant is that a number of EU Member States have recently established or improved mechanisms for the identification and protection of stateless persons, or have committed to taking steps in that direction in the near future. In the United Kingdom, a new statelessness determination procedure took effect on 6 April 2013, which allows stateless persons to be formally recognised as such and to legalize their presence in the United Kingdom, if they are not admissible to another country.75 In 2011, Belgium announced that it would make the Commissariat général aux réfugiés et aux apatrides, the body responsible for refugee status determination, competent to recognise the status of 68 Bianchini, K., ‘On the Protection of Stateless Persons in Germany’, 19 Tilburg Law Review (2014) 42–46. 69 Vreemdelingenbesluit (Aliens Decree) 2000, art. 3.4 (1w). 70 JaghaI, S., C. Vlieks, ‘Buitenschuldbeleid schiet tekort in bescherming staatlozen’, 05/06 Asiel- & Migrantenrecht (2013) 287–292. 71 Art. 352(2) of the Polish Law on Foreigners of 8 October 2013 (entry into force 1 May 2014). See also Gyulai, G., Forgotten without Reason. Protection of Non-refugee Stateless Persons in Central Europe (Budapest, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, 2007), p. 20, 26. 72 The exceptions are Cyprus, Estonia, Poland and Malta. 73 18 EU Member States are parties to the 1961 Convention as of 27 July 2016. 74 Note Verbale from the European Union to the United Nations of 19 September 2012, section A, para 4, available at www.unrol.org/files/Pledges%20by%20the%20European%20 Union.pdf. 75 United Kingdom Immigration Rules, para 403. European Journal of Migration and Law 19 (2017) 101–135