Stateless Population Data 14. As the Council of the European Union has elaborated, states should collect reliable quantitative and qualitative data on statelessness and adopt and strengthen measures to count stateless persons on their territory.14 The availability of reliable data is linked to whether procedures to identify and determine statelessness exist. There is little available data on the stateless population in Slovenia. The last census from 2002 recorded 2,527 people as having ‘unknown citizenship’ status.15 However, it cannot be determined if no data on citizenship was collected or if respondents self-identified as stateless, meaning that it is unclear who is included in this category. The data is therefore both incomprehensive and unreliable. 15. The Ministry of Interior collects data on people claiming to be stateless during immigration, international protection, and naturalisation procedures. However, there are overlapping categories, as the Ministry uses both ‘without citizenship’ and ‘unknown citizenship’ as categories. Between 2009 and 2013, five people acquired Slovenian citizenship through facilitated naturalisation proceedings for stateless persons as prescribed by the Citizenship Act.16 Under the ‘Aliens Act’ permanent residence permits were issued to thirteen stateless people and international protection was granted to one stateless person. Slovenia has no statelessness determination procedure and no national mapping study of statelessness has been conducted. This, alongside the existence of groups that have been disproportionally exposed to statelessness - in particular, Roma and Erased populations 17 – means that these existing statistics are likely to be an underrepresentation of the numbers of stateless people in Slovenia. Statelessness Determination and Status 16. To be able to provide the protection and rights enshrined in the 1954 Convention, including a residence permit and the right to work, study and facilitated naturalisation; as well as in more general terms, to protect the human rights of all stateless persons in Slovenia, it is important to be able to identify stateless people in the country. UNHCR recommends that this is best fulfilled through a dedicated statelessness determination procedure.18 17. Slovenia does not have a dedicated statelessness determination procedure (SDP). There are other administrative procedures through which statelessness can be identified (for 14 Conclusions of the Council of the European Union and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on Statelessness, 4 December 2015, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pressreleases/2015/12/04/council-adopts-conclusions-on-statelessness/ 15 Annual Report of the Ministry of Interior, 2015: http://www.mnz.gov.si/si/zakonodaja_in_dokumenti/pomembni_dokumenti/. 16 ibid. 17 For more information on the Erased, see: http://www.mirovni-institut.si/izbrisani/en/. 18 UNHCR (2014), Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, http://www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/statelessness/53b698ab9/handbook-protection-stateless-persons.html 4