STATELESSNESS, DISCRIMINATION AND MARGINALISATION OF ROMA IN UKRAINE 1. Introducing the Interviewees For the purposes of this report, 15 Roma1 individuals and families who have experienced statelessness or the risk of statelessness were interviewed. Below are short case studies presenting some of their stories.2 39-year-old Moldavian Roma Marta currently resides in Odessa city. She was born in a village of Odessa region. She is in an informal marriage with a Ukrainian Roma. Indeed, because she is undocumented, Marta has no chance to have the marriage recognised by the state authorities. She has two sons who are 21 and 16 years old. Marta’s parents had documents and officially registered their marriage, but although they managed to get passports for their elder children, they could not do so for Marta and her younger brother. Later their birth certificates were stolen in a robbery. Consequently, Marta and her sons have no identity documents. Marta applied to the village council for documents, but she was asked to bring her mother for the application process. As her mother can barely walk and is not able to assist, Marta did not apply to any of the state or local authorities again. Because of not having documents, which is an administrative offence in Ukraine, Marta has been repeatedly detained by the police and she and her sons are forced to beg for their livelihood. One of Marta’s sons is 16-year-old Ruslan. Ruslan attended a Christian school, where he learnt to read, write and was baptised. However, Ruslan is deprived of the opportunity to continue his studies because he has no identity documents and has not applied for a passport. Ruslan believes that his parents will have to get documents for themselves, before he can apply for his passport. Ruslan now works as an unskilled labourer in construction, and sometimes begs with his mother. He is mocked by his teenage friends for not being a citizen of Ukraine. Ruslan has faith in the Ukrainian legal system and expects the local authorities to provide him with guidance and a solution. Sofia lives in a village near Odessa city. Both Sofia and her father are Ukrainian Roma, but her mother is Moldavian Roma. Sofia is now in her 50s and in an informal marriage with a Kishinevets Roma. She has six children and one of her daughters has a mental health disability. Sofia works as an occasional, low-skilled labourer to support her family. Neither Sofia nor her children have any identity documents. She is not aware of the exact reason for this. She has on 1 In Ukraine, there are various Roma ethnic groups. Members of the following groups were interviewed for this research: Kishinevtsy (whose ancestors lived in Moldova, but after serfdom was abolished, moved to Ukraine and the Russian Federation), Moldavian Roma (who also originate from Moldova, but more visibly maintain their Roma heritage and traditions); Vlahy (who live in Ukraine and the Russian Federation and speak a Romani dialect; Palamiy and Georgian Roma belong to this ethnic group); Servy (who are also referred to as Ukrainian Roma and migrated to Ukraine from Romania and Serbia - most do not speak Romani); Ruska Roma (who originate from Poland and reside in the Russian Federation and Belarus and whose dialect of Romani has incorporated many words from the German, Russian and Polish languages). Other Roma subgroups include Kotlary, Plaschuny and Crimean Roma. 2 The names of the interviewees were changed in order to keep their identities anonymous. 3