139. It can be concluded from the legal analysis that, apart from the identification and determination problems described above, Dutch legislation generally complies with its international obligations in the field of statelessness. An exception is to be found in the requirement of lawful residence for children who want to apply for Dutch nationality. The fact that Dutch aliens and nationality law is generally in accordance with the 1954 and 1961 Conventions does not mean, however, that there is no room for improvement. To tackle statelessness effectively, it may be necessary to go beyond the terms of the conventions. The next chapter will therefore point out the areas where Dutch statelessness law and policy could usefully be improved. Case: A stateless Roma family Mirela Nikolić is a Roma mother. Statelessness has been a recurring problem for generations: for her grandparents, her parents, herself and her children. Mirela was born in Italy. She came to the Netherlands when still a child. Due to the difficulties encountered in the Netherlands, her whole family went (with false identity and travel documents; they never had real ones) to the USA. She didn’t have a residence permit in the USA. Because of that, fearing to be exposed, she did not register her four children who were born in the USA with the authorities there. In 1998, Mirela and her family moved back (with false documents again, as they still had no genuine ones) to the Netherlands. Efforts to regularize their stay and obtain a residence permit failed. Mirela still has no identity document, she is not allowed to work and as a result at one point of time she stole food from a shop. Due to that event, she is now an undesirable alien. Although the family is registered as stateless with the municipality in which they live, the authorities continue trying to find a country to which they can deport Mirela and her family. So far, without result. In the meantime, because they are still minors, her children can go to school. Once they turn 18, they too may face an existence without documents, without access to work, medical care etc. Case: A Somali without papers Ahmed Hassan belongs to the Bajuni tribe, which inhabits a few islands off the Somali coast. Members of the Bajuni tribe speak a dialect of Swahili. Due to the ongoing armed conflict in Somalia, Ahmed decided to flee. First he went to Yemen. From there he managed to reach the Netherlands in 2007. An asylum application was denied, as his claim to be a Somali was deemed not credible. In order to prepare his expulsion from the Netherlands, Ahmed was presented to the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies. Both considered Ahmed not to be their national. Ahmed was then deported to Somalia in February 2010. As Ahmed cannot speak the Somali language, he was refused entry by the local authorities and returned to the Netherlands. For most of the time he has been in the Netherlands, Ahmed has either been living in a reception centre or detained in an aliens detention centre. It is not clear what will happen to Ahmed. He has decided that it would be best for him to return to Somalia, but he has no travel documents which would allow him to travel to his place of origin in a safe manner. in the Netherlands 55