ROMA BELONG several occasions applied to village councils for the issuance of a certificate of residence. Due to the loss of the housing register3 while being transferred to the state archive, government officials are unable to establish her place of residence. Therefore, Sofia has no documentary proof to start the procedure for her passport to be issued, and is unable to apply for a state social pension for her disabled daughter while being deprived enjoyment of her basic human rights. Anastasiya and her husband moved to Ukraine from Georgia in 1990, after the civil war began. Since then she has been living in Odessa region. Both she and her husband are Georgian Roma. Anastasiya has eight children, and seven of them were born in the territory of Ukraine. One of her daughters was arrested by the police for begging on the street, and Anastasiya does not know where she is. Anastasiya works as an informal, low-skilled labourer to support her family. The only document Anastasiya has is her birth certificate issued in Georgia, as her father burnt all the family’s documents. Anastasiya’s neighbour Sveta assisted her in getting her birth certificate translated so that she could apply to the local authorities. She is now required to receive confirmation from the Georgian Consulate in Odessa city that she has no Georgian citizenship, but Anastasiya simply has no means to travel to the consulate. She applied several times to the district office of the State Migration Service and was repeatedly told that without paying a bribe she would not succeed in getting the documents. In 1990 at the age of ten, Georgian Roma Mariam moved to Ukraine with her parents. When she was fifteen, she met her future husband – also, Georgian Roma – and eloped with him before she could get a passport. They are in an informal marriage and Mariam now has eight children (aged three to sixteen) and will soon become a grandmother. Recently, after six years of trying, with the help of her mother, Mariam got a passport. She got her birth certificate reissued through the Georgian Consulate in Odessa and then applied to the court for an identification document and confirmation of permanent residence in Ukraine. Mariam’s family went through great economic hardship (sometimes going without food) to pay the court fees. Her main goal now that she has her passport is to get birth certificates for her children so that they can attend school and she can receive social security. When all but her youngest child’s births were registered, Mariam gave her grandmother’s surname, so she must now prove that she is the mother of all her elder children. Elina and her five siblings belong to the Kishinevtsy ethnic group. After getting married, Elina moved from Odessa city to a village in the region. Her husband died 10 years ago, leaving Elina alone with their daughter. Elina’s only source of income is buying, shelling and selling nuts. Except for Elina and one of her brothers, everyone in their family has documents. Elina’s documents were lost after her parents passed away and the children were taken to different foster families. Elina’s daughter possesses a birth certificate as her father had a passport. Elina has applied to both local and Odessa regional migration service offices for documentation. Fortunately for her, the officials managed to find a record confirming her residence in Ukraine in 1991. As a result, she was able to establish her identity and is now awaiting a decision. Elina explains that life with no documents has been hard for her. She recalls when she had to hide 3 4 Housing register is a document in which all residents of the house are listed and which is kept by the house owner. It serves as evidence of legal residence in Ukraine.