If a stateless person’s temporary residence permit is withdrawn, the temporary residence permits of their co-habiting family members shall be also revoked, except in cases where their right to residence is based on other grounds.260 The decision to withdraw a temporary residence permit is taken by the Migration Department.261 The decision can be appealed within 14 days.262 The appeal has a suspensive effect.263 Thus, the person concerned, still considered a lawful resident, would be entitled to the State-guaranteed legal aid. A permanent residence permit may only be withdrawn if it has been obtained by fraud, if the person’s residence in Lithuania may constitute a threat to State security or public order or if the person has been residing in a country that is not a Member State of the EU for a period exceeding 12 consecutive months.264 Upon withdrawal of the permit, the person’s co-habiting family members’ permits are also withdrawn, unless they are entitled to reside in Lithuania on other grounds.265 The expiration of a permanent residence card does not affect the validity of the permanent residence itself.266 The decision to withdraw the permanent residence permit can be appealed, under the same terms as in withdrawing a temporary residence permit.267 The competent authority to withdraw the permit is the Migration Department.268 3.4.2.2 THE RIGHT TO WORK As noted above, the recognition of an individual as stateless “triggers the ‘lawfully staying’ rights” of the 1954 Convention.269 Among these rights are the right to work (Article 17), practice of liberal profession (Article 19), and labor and social security rights (Article 24). Article 17 provides in its entirety: 1. The Contracting States shall accord to stateless persons lawfully staying in their territory treatment as possible and, in any event, not less favourable that that accorded to aliens generally in the same circumstances,270 as regards the right to engage in wage-earning employment. 2. The Contracting States shall give sympathetic consideration to assimilating the rights of all stateless persons with regard to wage-earning employment to those of nationals, and in particular of those stateless persons who have entered their territory pursuant to programmes of labour recruitment or under immigration schemes. Although the Convention does not define the term “wage-earning employment,” it should be interpreted in the broadest sense of the term.271 260 Ibid. Article 50(3). 261 Ibid. Article 51(4). 262 Ibid. Articles 136, 138. 263 Ibid. Article 139(1) (1). 264 Ibid. Article 54(1) (1-3). 265 Ibid. Article 54(3). 266 Ibid. Article 54(4). 267 Ibid. Articles 136, 138. 268 Ibid. Article 55(4). 269 UNHCR Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, para 150. 270 Article 6, the term “in the same circumstances” provides: For the purpose of this Convention, the term “in the same circumstances” implies 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. 271 Robinson, N., Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, Its History and Interpretation, A Commentary (1955),p. 62. U N H C R S TO C K H O L M , M AY 2 0 1 6 61