4 BOBAN ROMAN Boban is a stateless Roma from Macedonia. Having faced discrimination his whole life - denied access to secondary school education, the right to work, the right to marry or to access social security - he decided to travel irregularly to claim asylum in Belgium in 2005. His claim was rejected so he tried to claim asylum in Luxembourg but was returned to Belgium under the Dublin Regulation. In 2008 he applied for regularisation as a stateless person, and although the process was slow his application was granted in 2009 after the Macedonian Office of Internal Affairs wrote a letter confirming that he was not a citizen of Macedonia. However, Boban was shocked to discover that his new status still gave him no right to stay in Belgium. It granted him no permission to work and no entitlement to housing or social assistance. Living destitute, his only option was again to apply for asylum. When this was refused he tried to claim asylum in Austria and Germany but on both occasions he was sent back to Belgium. On his return be claimed asylum for a sixth time and after this was rejected he was detained for three weeks even though the Belgian authorities already had confirmation from Macedonia that he was not a citizen so could not be removed there. Although now out of detention, he remains in limbo and with no hope for the future. Roman was born in Kosovo in the 1960’s. His father was a Yugoslav citizen and his mother was a citizen of the USSR. Early in his life, Roman’s mother took him to Russia to live with his grandmother. However, before he was old enough to obtain an ID as proof of his nationality, his grandmother died and Roman left Russia to travel around Europe. He came to Slovakia more than 20 years ago but he has remained in limbo ever since due to his lack of a nationality. He describes having been held in an immigration centre on six or seven occasions due his lack of nationality or ID. Back in 2005, he was issued with an expulsion order and a 10 year re-entry ban. However, he cannot leave the country he cannot re-enter, making the ban cruelly ironic. Instead, since 2006 he has had his tolerated stay periodically extended every six months but he remains unable to get on with his life. His lack of a permanent regularised status prevents him from working or accessing other benefits which in turn impacts on his ability to care for his disabled partner, a Slovakian citizen. He cannot apply to naturalise as a Slovakian citizen because he has a criminal record due to his failure to comply with his original expulsion order (despite this being beyond his control). He has no solution in sight. Provided by Flemmish Refugee Action Provided by the Human Rights League, Slovakia