3.4.2.3 THE RIGHT TO PUBLIC RELIEF AND SOCIAL SECURITY The right to social security in Finland is based on residence in Finland. The basis for various social security related rights and services is laid down in the Act on Application of Social Security Legislation based on Residence.144 According to this Act, the social security legislation is applied to a person who is a permanent resident in Finland, who has her or his actual home in Finland and who mainly resides in Finland. The social security legislation can also be applied to a person who has just moved to Finland if there are reasons to assume that the person’s intention is to settle in Finland permanently. Such indications are for instance, a residence permit granted on the grounds of international protection or a residence permit based on family ties. A person is not considered to reside in Finland permanently, if she or he for example moves to Finland solely because of studies, is an asylum-seeker, or has been granted temporary protection in Finland. This applies to stateless persons the same way as to other immigrants and more importantly, as the social security system is primarily based on residence, not on nationality, stateless persons and immigrants generally are to a large extent treated similarly as nationals in terms of social security. In addition, the Act on Application of Social Security Legislation based on Residence specifies that the provisions of the Act that are applicable to Finnish nationals are also applicable to refugees and stateless persons.145 However, as according to the Act on Application of Social Security Legislation based on Residence the comprehensive social security system only applies to persons whose residence in Finland is considered as permanent, stateless persons who reside in Finland lawfully but are not considered to reside in Finland permanently are not covered by the residence based, comprehensive social security system. The articles of the 1954 Convention which deal with public relief (Article 23) and labour legislation and social security (Article 24) state that the Contracting State shall accord to stateless persons lawfully residing in their territory the same treatment as is accorded to nationals, with some possible exceptions with regard to social security. The reference is made to lawful residence only; therefore the treatment in terms of social security of those stateless persons who are residing in Finland lawfully but whose residence is not considered permanent is not in compliance with the 1954 Convention. Finland made a reservation to Article 24 (1) b and (3) concerning social security at the time of the accession to the 1954 Convention. However, as under the current legislation stateless persons lawfully and permanently residing in Finland are covered by the same social security system as nationals, the reservation no longer seems necessary and it is therefore recommended that Finland lifts this reservation and at the same time reviews the possibility to extend the social security system to cover those stateless persons whose residence in Finland is lawful but considered other than permanent. 3.4.2.4 IDENTIFICATION AND TRAVEL DOCUMENTS Stateless persons do not have specific rights to identification documents in Finland but the same rights and provisions apply to them as to immigrants generally. In accordance with Section 96 of the Aliens Act, a card indicating that an application for international protection is pending can be issued to an asylum-seeker by the police or the Border Guard. However, in practice these cards are not being issued as the need for them has been determined to be very limited. Currently, asylum-seekers are issued with residence cards by the reception centres, which is not an official identity document.146 40 144 Laki asumiseen perustuvan sosiaaliturvalainsäädännön soveltamisesta, 1573/1993. 145 Ibid, Section 11. Furthermore, the act contains a definition of a stateless person. Section 2 (2) 12 defines a stateless person as someone who is stateless in accordance with the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. This definition is not identical with the definition of a stateless person in the Nationality Act. It remained unclear within the scope of the study whether this difference in definitions has any implications in practice and would merit a further examination. 146 E-mail from the Immigration Department of the Ministry of Interior, 10 October 2012, and telephone conversation with the Police Department of the Ministry of Interior, 11 October 2012. MAPPING STATELESSNESS IN FINL AND