to legal residence, social services or to work. A declaration of undesirability criminalizes and penalizes an alien’s presence on Dutch territory, making it impossible to pursue a resolution of his or her dilemma afterwards. The Aliens Act and the Aliens Decree, for instance, block one avenue to lift such a declaration of undesirability as they stipulate that such a declaration will be lifted after an individual has been outside the Netherlands for either ten or five years (depending on the severity of the crime committed) and does not repeat the offence during this period.119 For stateless and unreturnable persons it is often impossible to depart legally from the Netherlands, which effectively prevents their rehabilitation. This is in spite of Article 6 of the 1954 Convention, which states in relation to stateless persons that: “any requirements (including requirements as to length and conditions of sojourn or residence) which the particular individual would have to fulfil for the enjoyment of the right in question, if he were not a stateless person, must be fulfilled by him, with the exception of requirements which by their nature a stateless person is incapable of fulfilling.”120 88. In practice, however, the crucial criterion to be fulfilled to rescind a declaration of undesirability is by nature singularly unattainable for a stateless person. It should be noted that the Aliens Circular provides that in extraordinary cases, when danger to the public order has receded or when the personal interest of the alien ought to prevail, a declaration could be lifted before the prescribed period has passed.121 Despite ample attempts, none of the interviewees had thus far qualified for this particular provision. Case: Man from South Ossetia (Georgia) Zviad Gelovani was born in the former Soviet Union. More precisely, in South Ossetia, Georgia. In 1990, South Ossetia declared itself independent from Georgia. This led to an armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia in 1991-1992. There were armed clashes again in 2004. In the summer of 2008, the situation in South Ossetia led to a brief armed conflict between Georgia and the Russian Federation. South Ossetia’s independence is not recognized by the majority of countries in the world. South Ossetian passports are useless. There are no South Ossetian embassies. When Zviad was called up for the armed forces of South Ossetia, he left the country and ended up in the Netherlands in 2008. He had no proof of his South Ossetian identity: he only had an old USSR “Form No. 9�� by which to identify himself and this was not accepted. (It is also no longer valid in the Russian Federation.) An asylum application was denied. From January to September 2010 Zviad was put in aliens’ detention awaiting deportation. Then, after eight months, he was released by order of the court in The Hague, as there was no prospect of successful deportation. Zviad cannot get either a South Ossetian or a Russian travel document. Georgia also refused to issue a laissez-passer as it could not find registration of him anywhere in its registers. Zviad is living illegally in The Netherlands. He now depends on charity for survival. 38 119 Aliens Act 2000, Article 68; Aliens Decree, Article 6.6(1). 120 1954 Convention relating to the status of stateless persons, Article 6. Emphasis added. 121 Aliens Circular, paragraph A5/4.1 Mapping statelessness