nationality as regards their legal and social protection and their documentation.”37 On the basis of this resolution, the Economic and Social Council adopted a resolution in March the following year requesting the Secretary-General to undertake a study of the existing situation with regard to the protection of stateless persons and national legislation, international agreements and conventions relevant to statelessness, and to submit recommendations to the Council on the desirability of concluding a further convention on this subject.38 Pursuant to such resolution, the Department of Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat prepared the report, A Study of Statelessness.39 This report extended its provisions to de jure as well as de facto stateless persons; it outlines the situation for stateless persons traveling across international borders, their legal status in the host country of residence, activities of international organizations, international agreements and conventions relevant to the protection of refugees, causes of statelessness, and portrays the plight of illegal immigrants who enter the country of residence without valid passports/visas living under constant fear of deportation and avoiding contact with authorities. It also refers to stateless persons who are at risk for protracted detention as no country is bound to receive a stateless person for whom an expulsion order has been issued. The report recommends countries to issue travel documents to stateless persons, refrain from expulsion to countries where they risk becoming illegal residents, secure the right to work and the opportunity for elementary education, and exempt them from reciprocity requirements in practicing their profession or in higher education. After this report was compiled, the Economic and Social Council appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on Refugees and Related Problems, consisting of representatives from thirteen governments, to draft the text of a convention for refugees and stateless persons. The Council also requested the International Law Commission (ILC) to prepare a study and make recommendations for eliminating the problem of statelessness.40 The Ad Hoc Committee held two sessions before it presented the Council with a Draft Convention relating to the status of refugees and a Draft Protocol relating to the status of stateless persons. The Economic and Social Council reconvened the Ad Hoc 37 38 39 40 UN Doc.E/600(1947), para.46 ECOSOC Res.116D(VI), 1 and 2 March 1948. Supra note 4. ECOSOC Res.248B(IX), 8 August 1949. 19