and timely data on statelessness are available. In particular, gaps in data collection still exist with respect to:     Refugee determination of stateless persons, including their country of former habitual residence, age, gender, and whether statelessness was a factor in the decision. Humanitarian and compassionate cases including an assessment of whether or not statelessness was considered as a positive factor, and disaggregated data on the country of former habitual residence, age and gender. Detention under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) of stateless persons including country of former habitual residence, age, gender, and length of detention. Removal of stateless persons including the country of former habitual residence and legal status in the country of destination.19 It is necessary to follow up on the recommendations made in the 2012 UNHCR report, and ensure that their implementation is monitored. This may require changes in policy and legislation and can take a significant amount of time and effort from several stakeholders. Literature Review Stateless persons are among the most vulnerable people in the world. Without legal identity of any kind stateless people often live in a limbo that relegates them to the periphery of society. The UNHCR maintains it is important to collect data on stateless persons in order to 1. highlight where protection gaps exist for stateless populations and what these might be. This will help to encourage uniformity about the problem within countries and between regions; 2. facilitate greater recognition of the issue through awareness raising among stakeholders such as governments and NGOs as well as among stateless individuals and communities themselves; 3. determine the better allocation of resources to deal with statelessness; and 4. inform advocacy for government target setting to facilitate the prevention and reduction of statelessness in the longer-term.20 Data collection exercises around the world have been commenced on the part of non-governmental organisations, government, media, and academia21, though the UNHCR “remains the only organisation which systematically collates statistics and regularly reports on the number of stateless persons in the world.”22 The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) states “much of this data is already in the public domain, but it is not easy to navigate, or verify for reliability, accuracy, authenticity or being upto-date. As such, there is varying information (of varying quality) available on the situations of 19 Brouwer, 2012, 68 UNHCR 2011, 4 21 ISI 2014, 39 22 ISI 2014, 37 20 5