Addressing statelessness in Europe’s refugee response a stateless person to meet, which is why the need for facilitated routes to naturalisation is enshrined in the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons. However, it was reported in some countries that this facilitation either does not exist or is not implemented in practice. STATELESS REFUGEES Profile of interviewees Two focus group discussions were held with representatives of communities affected by statelessness including Palestinian, Kurdish, Roma and undocumented migrant-led organisations, as well as cultural mediators from Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, Dari, and Arabic-speaking backgrounds. 12 individual interviews with stateless refugees were also carried out, four in each of the three research countries (10 men and two women). Some interviewees were travelling alone, others were with family members or intended to join family in Europe. In Greece and Serbia, all regarded their stay as temporary and planned to continue their journey to another European country. In the Netherlands, all said their intention was to remain in the country. All self-identified as stateless and came from communities whose statelessness is well documented. Interviews explored the impact statelessness had on their lives in their countries of origin, during their journeys to and in Europe. Although interviewers did not explicitly ask about reasons for leaving, interviewees articulated these in some cases as being directly linked to their statelessness, while others had fled for similar reasons as citizens. All interviewees had lodged or intended to make a claim for asylum in a European country. This research did not explore issues relating to statelessness in the context of resettlement, family reunion, or any other routes to protection. Identification and registration Correct identification and registration as a stateless person were considered important by all interviewees. Some were unsure at what stage it was safe to inform the authorities of their nationality status, and others did not know the relevance of their statelessness to their status in Europe, but at the time of interview all were aware that identifying their nationality status in the longterm was important. However, the interviews revealed that the process of identification is clearly very challenging. In Greece, all participants said their nationality status was wrongly registered by authorities who either did not understand that someone could be stateless, did not believe them, or both: ‘They registered me as Syrian and I didn't tell them that I am maktumix because I thought this was not a good idea. In a later interview, I tried to explain that I am stateless and had many problems in Syria, but they didn't really listen or didn't understand.’ (Syrian Kurd interviewed in Greece) ‘I tried to show the hospital record during the first reception interview, but they were not interested. They said that we are Iraqis, I explained that we are not, that we are bidoon from Kuwait.’ (Kuwaiti bidoon interviewed in Greece) 5