I am a Jordanian citizen and have easily travelled to and from multiple destinations within Europe with relative ease. Most of my friends on this trip are naturalized Canadians who don't need a visa to Europe. The problem lay with my best friend who holds a Palestinian refugee travel document issued by Syria.
After a long application process, they returned his passport with a paper on the side that has a visa imprinted on it (not inside the passport!!). The paper is tiled "authorization in lieu of a visa". Within the passport itself, the same visa was stuck and then stamped with a huge “cancelled without prejudice”.
He inquired about all this. And they told him they had to do this since his travel document isn't recognized by the Dutch authorities and he will have to hold on to the visa printed on the paper for his travel to the Netherlands.
Of course this implies that he will be able to travel to the Netherlands with this paper. However the glaring question is: How will he enter the Netherlands if his travel document isn't recognized by the dutch authorities? Is there a chance they send him back?