up the story and experiences as told by the interviewee. Interviews lasted on average approximately 75 minutes and participation was entirely voluntary (no remuneration was offered). Most respondents gave permission to record the conversation. Nevertheless, complete anonymity was guaranteed, to allow respondents to talk freely without fearing potential ramifications of their candour. Throughout the report, therefore, pseudonyms have been used to portray their stories, although some interviewees had wanted their names to be mentioned. 14. The main goal of the legal part of this study is to build on the demographic analysis by investigating the implementation of the 1954 and 1961 Conventions in Dutch law. In analysing current Dutch approaches to statelessness in law and policy, particular attention will be paid to whether Dutch law and policy provide for the following three remedies for statelessness: pre-emptive remedies, which try to prevent statelessness before it develops; minimization remedies, which lessen the difficulties associated with statelessness and serve to protect stateless persons from discrimination; and remedies providing for the grant of nationality to persons who would otherwise be stateless or who are already stateless. While the 1961 Convention primarily deals with the first and last remedies, the 1954 Convention contains a considerable number of minimization remedies and also provides for facilitated naturalization in its Article 32. As will be seen throughout this report, the 1954 Convention has yet to be fully applied in the Dutch context. Case: A couple from the former USSR Eric and Gala are a couple from the former USSR. They were born in what is now the independent country of the Ukraine. They fled the USSR for the USA in 1990, before the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In the USA they applied for asylum. Their application was finally dismissed In 2002 after some 11 years. In the meantime, they had found employment, a home, and had become part of a vibrant Jewish community. They never applied for citizenship of newly independent Ukraine, hoping and expecting to become USA citizens one day. However, during their stay in the USA they became stateless due to the dissolution of the USSR. In December 2006 they were arrested and detained for three months. In May 2007, they were deported to Ukraine. To carry out the deportation, unsigned, apparently fabricated identity documentation was used. Eric and Gala were not willing to stay in the Ukraine due to previous persecution (in the USSR) and successfully contested their Ukrainian citizenship. Not being Ukrainian nationals, Ukraine tried to deport them to the USA in August 2008. While at Schiphol airport, they were prevented by Dutch border police from boarding a plane to the USA. They have been in The Netherlands ever since. On two occasions, attempts to return them to Ukraine failed, as they were not granted admission by the Ukrainian authorities, which contested that they had previously had Ukrainian citizenship. They have no residence permit in the Netherlands; they don’t even have identity documents. Most of their time has been spent in a reception centre for asylumseekers, although the couple has also been in aliens’ detention for some time. 8 Mapping statelessness