that point, it appeared that the person is stateless and that there was no country where s/he could be expelled to. This meant that regardless of whether the individuals wanted to leave the country, they simply could not leave. The whole situation usually resulted in detention. However, its outcome was always the same and the attempts to forcibly return the person ended up in vain. Relevant authorities faced difficulties in effectively addressing the situation because they lacked legal instruments needed to this end. « I am afraid that it could happen again on the twentieth when my exit visa expires. I have it every time when my visa is about to expire, for the visa always lasts for one month. It is hard psychologically. A person who assaults somebody receives a punishment. But me, who has done nothing to nobody, I have to wait every month to see whether something bad would happen. And now they are threatening me that they would lock me up for one year. Why would they detain me when I have done nothing wrong?” After a certain period of time, the interviewed persons came to believe that their situation was hopeless. They could not regularise their stay and fell into a vicious circle of attempted expulsions and detention. They often stayed in the Czech Republic irregularly for many years. Realization of the hopelessness of their situation sometimes resulted in resignation. « Then it was over. They [authorities] met with me twice when I was in detention and then they realized that there was no way to solve it (…). And then I lost hope. (…) It’s like spinning in a circle. (…) They told me that they would release me from detention. But when they released me, (…) they did not give me an exit visa or anything else, they only gave me the passport and let me out. They locked me there only because I resided irregularly and then they released me as an irregular person again, without giving me anything or at least telling me what is happening with my case, what results they have.” According to the collected testimonies, life spent between the periods of everyday isolation and repeated deprivation of liberty or a fear of being detained again resulted in the disintegration of basic temporal, spatial and social frameworks of life. Lives of the interviewed stateless persons were organised around the periods of deprivation of liberty and the periods at liberty. They lived in uncertainty with no realistic way out. The result was an adaptation of the life strategy to focus on survival and fulfilling basic needs. Persons interviewed during the research lived on the edge of society, marginalised and isolated. This led them to a psychological setting where they lived in a permanent feeling of “deprivation of liberty”. Their existence was that of a mere day-to-day survival. « Every time they release me from detention and I am back on the street, I sleep on the street, I collect food from the trash. Then I manage to talk to somebody and find some work, I go to work and earn some money so I can find housing through some acquaintances. It is not possible legally, I don’t have a contract, but I always live with somebody, in some room in a flat at friends and so on. And so I stay there for a while, I work somewhere, it settles and then they check me again and arrest and detain me again. I lose my housing, work, everything. Then they release me from detention and everything starts again. I end up on the street, at first I sleep outside, under the bridge. And then slowly I manage to earn some money and find accommodation, and then they lock me up again. It is over and over like this. After each time I am released I have to start from zero.” UNHCR Czech Republic 45