BRIEFING: Stateless people and people at risk of statelessness from Ukraine 10 March 2022 Former citizens of the USSR who were unable to demonstrate permanent residence in Ukraine in 1991 could not acquire Ukrainian nationality. Some, who have been unable to acquire any nationality, have remained stateless due to lack of access to legal aid and other factors, passing their statelessness on to their children. Asylum-seekers, refugees, and migrants (and their children) who were residing in Ukraine and were stateless before leaving their countries of origin (e.g., Palestinians, Kuwaiti Bidoon, Syrian Kurds); or who may have since become stateless due to displacement, discrimination or gaps in nationality laws, State succession, or deprivation of nationality practices. People living in non-Government controlled areas and Crimea and those internally displaced in Ukraine have faced significant barriers to obtaining or renewing personal documents since 2014, leaving an estimated 60,000 children born in these areas without birth certificates and at risk of statelessness. Most people affected by statelessness residing in Ukraine will not be able to prove their residence or nationality status due to the nature of statelessness. Ukraine recently introduced a statelessness determination procedure to determine who is stateless on its territory and grant protection to stateless people. However, the procedure only became operational in May 2021, and by 31 December 2021 only 55 people had been granted a temporary residence permit through the procedure. More than 800 people to date have applied for recognition as a stateless person under the procedure and have been documented with a certificate of application confirming legal stay on the territory of Ukraine. More information at: https://index.statelessness.eu/country/ukraine and https://www.unhcr.org/ua/en/stateless-persons 3. Identifying statelessness Statelessness is not always easy to identify. Stateless people might not have proof of being stateless, might not be sure if they are stateless, or might not be aware that they could be at risk of statelessness. Below is a non-exhaustive list of questions that can help to identify if a person is stateless or at risk of statelessness: • • • • Does the person or their parents belong to one of the groups disproportionately affected by statelessness in Ukraine (see above)? If they originate from another country, is this a country with a significant stateless population or where women cannot pass on their nationality to their children (if yes, did they inherit their father’s nationality, are children in family stateless/at risk)? Does the person claim to have one or more nationalities? If not, or they are unsure, try to establish the reasons. Does the person have an identity document that is valid or expired? If not, have they ever had one, or attempted to obtain identity documents from another country? If they have documents from another country, does the country that issued their documents still exist? Do the documents indicate that they have the nationality of that country? Does the person hold any official document that states that they are stateless or of unknown/undetermined nationality?