place there are certain shortcomings regarding access to rights for stateless persons and it remains very difficult for stateless persons to acquire Hungarian nationality due to the requirements for naturalisation addressed in the following section. 38. Under its international obligations Hungary shall accord to stateless persons the right to employment, housing, healthcare, and public education as favourable as possible and, in any event, not less favourable than that accorded to foreigners generally in the same circumstances.79 These obligations under the 1954 Convention are further strengthened by Hungary’s obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 39. Recognised stateless persons have only limited access to the labour market as they must obtain a work permit, but the procedures and conditions to receive such permits are particularly burdensome. A work permit can only be issued to stateless persons if there is no suitable Hungarian or EEA-citizen applicant for the same post. 80 This highly bureaucratic “labour market assessment” procedure may discourage potential employers from hiring a stateless person. Moreover, the validity of a work permit cannot exceed the validity of the residence permit, which is now three years at first issuance, and must be renewed on a yearly basis after the first three years have expired.81 40. It is unclear what the justification is to differentiate between the validity periods of three years at first issuance of the residence permit and one year upon renewal, and such a distinction is unique to stateless status in Hungarian law (in all other cases the prolongation periods are similar to the initial one). While stateless persons can apply for permanent residence after three years, to do so they must fulfil several difficult material conditions. Given the limited validity of the humanitarian residence permit and the usual procedural delays of at least several months, employers may refrain from the lengthy and cumbersome procedure of applying for work permits for recognised stateless persons (or other foreigners with a similar type of residence permit) until they have been able to acquire a permanent residence permit, thereby creating obstacles to stateless persons’ enjoyment of socio-economic rights in Hungary.82 41. Access to social security and healthcare is linked to employment contributions, so a person recognised as stateless does not have an automatic right to social security and public healthcare, only to basic emergency public healthcare services. With respect to healthcare, stateless persons are also discriminated against compared to other beneficiaries of international protection, as they usually lack access to gainful employment that would allow them to become eligible for social security and public healthcare, or to pay for private healthcare insurance or services. Without employment, they can only benefit from basic public healthcare services, the scope of which is very 79 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Articles 17-24. Decree 8/1999 (XI. 10.) of the Ministry of Social and Family Affairs on the Employment of Foreigners in Hungary, Section 3 (1)-(2). 81 Act CXXXV of 2010 on the Amendment of Certain Acts Related to Migration, Section 41. 82 In general, see Gábor Gyulai, Statelessness in Hungary: The Protection of Stateless Persons and the Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, December 2010, p. 32: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4d6d26972.html. 80 12