 |
answer text |
<p>The Home Office Stateless policy is designed to assist those who do not qualify
for protection but are unable to return to the country of their former habitual residence
because they are stateless and would not be admitted to any other country. The requirements
are set out in the Immigration Rules and reflect our obligations under the 1954 UN
Convention relating to the status of stateless persons.</p><p>Home Office records
indicate a total of 1665 people have applied for leave to remain as a Stateless person
since 2013. Of these applications, 41 have been granted leave.</p><p>The number grant
leave as stateless is low, in all cases, the burden of proof rests with the applicant
to provide information to demonstrate they are stateless and that there is no country
to which they can be removed. Paragraph 403(d) of the Rules requires applicants to
obtain and submit all reasonably available evidence to enable the Secretary of State
to determine whether they are stateless and whether they qualify for stateless leave.
It is not enough, for example, for the applicant to rely upon a simple and unsupported
assertion of statelessness, or to provide no explanation or evidence in support of
the application, particularly where this runs contrary to previously available factual
information.</p><p>Paragraph 404 of the Immigration rules sets out the general reasons
for refusal of Limited Leave to Remain as a stateless person. It states that an applicant
will be refused leave to remain in the United Kingdom as stateless person if: (a)
they do not meet the requirements of paragraph 403; or (b) there are reasonable grounds
for considering that they are: (i) a danger to the security of the United Kingdom;
(ii) a danger to the public order of the United Kingdom; or (c) their application
would fall to be refused under any of the grounds set out in paragraph 322 of these
Rules.</p><p>Home Office records indicate that a total of 241 people who applied for
leave as a stateless person have applied for Asylum in the past 5 years. This breaks
down as 43 in 2011, 59 in 2012, 41 in 2013, 52 in 2014, 33 in 2015, 13 in 2016 (up
to and including 30 June 2016). Data has been provided by the Performance Reporting
and Analysis Unit and internally quality assured. These statistics have been taken
from a live operational database. As such numbers may change as information on that
system is updated.</p><p>The information requested on the reason people have been
successful in their application is not readily available and could only be obtained
at disproportionate cost.</p>
|
|
