This provision provides permanent residence – and even naturalisation, should permanence residence be granted and ordinary residence attained for a period of five years or more49 – for persons who do not satisfy any of the ordinary provisions applicable to immigrants wishing to remain on the territory. One of the main barriers that stateless persons face in accessing the most common immigration permits is the requirement of a passport and police clearance from their country of origin. Typically, stateless persons do not have passports and given that no country recognises them as a national, no country will assist in providing a police report. Where an immigrant cannot be removed from the territory due to statelessness, but has no means to legalise his or her stay on the territory under any of the ordinary provisions of the Act, no other mechanism exists to protect his or her right to acquire nationality other than the exemption process. The above provision thus presents the only means by which most stateless persons may access legal status and a path to naturalisation in this country.50 The Immigration Act also regulates the detention and deportation of illegal foreigners on the territory. Please refer to section 8 below for in depth analysis of how to assist detained stateless persons. At present, the immigration laws, policies and practices of most states do not sufficiently take into account the unique characteristics that set stateless persons apart from other migrants. All non-stateless migrants have an effective nationality, benefit from the protection of their state and have a country to be returned to. Stateless persons however, are not considered nationals under the operation of the law of any state, and the de facto stateless do not have an effective nationality. Both groups lack the protection of a nation state, and are unlikely to have consular or diplomatic protection and/or documentation. The failure to recognise the particular circumstances of statelessness has created a protection gap; this is most evident in the context of immigration detention for the purpose of removal. There are Guidelines to Protect Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention51 which provide detailed guidance on how states should treat stateless persons in the context of immigration detention in order to comply with their obligations under international human 49 50 51 30 As per section 5 of the Citizenship Act. Stateless persons who have travel documents or passports are able to apply for other regular immigration permits. Alternatively, a stateless applicant must request administrative discretion in waiving requirements for common immigration permits. The Equal Rights Trust, Draft Guidelines on the Detention of Stateless Persons, 2011 available at: http://www.equalrightstrust.org/view-subdocument/in dex.htm?id=830. Promoting citizenship and preventing statelessness in South Africa: A practitioner’s guide