-
reducing the burden of proof on the applicant;
providing temporary documentation and status until a final decision on application is made; and
clearly defining the form in which the application should be filed (written, oral, etc.).
26)
In January 2017, this draft law was sent back from the Parliament to the Government for review due to
these deficiencies. The timeframe for the adoption of the bill and its final text is unclear.
27)
Statelessness will not be identified among persons in Ukraine until an effective statelessness
determination procedure is in place. As a result, stateless persons in Ukraine are deprived of access to
any documentation and, consequently, to fundamental rights and freedoms. For instance, a travel
document should by law be granted to all stateless persons, in line with the 1954 Convention.
However, undocumented persons who may be stateless but haven’t been identified as such, will find it
impossible to receive a travel document, as the possession of a permanent residence permit is a
condition to apply for a travel document. Also, staying in Ukraine without proper documentation is
penalised by law. Under the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, Art. 203, living in Ukraine
without valid documents, with invalid or outdated documents, constitutes an administrative offense,
for which a fine is imposed in the sum of between thirty and fifty tax-exempt minimum wages.
Penalising the stay of stateless persons in Ukraine without proper documentation in the absence of
any mechanism for their identification and subsequent documentation only deteriorates the situation
of stateless people and prevents them from applying to state authorities for any services in Ukraine.
28)
Without a Statelessness Determination Procedure, stateless persons have access neither to a
facilitated naturalisation procedure, nor to any other fundamental human rights, such as rights to
education, employment, social security, health care, and the protection from non-discrimination. The
absence of a Statelessness Determination Procedure in Ukraine therefore conflicts with both the 1954
Convention and other generally applicable international human rights standards implemented by
Ukraine.
The Detention of Stateless Persons
29)
In Ukraine, statelessness is not taken into consideration at any stage of immigration detention and
removal procedures. Many stateless persons are incorrectly categorised as citizens of other countries.
Photographs of undocumented persons subject to deportation are presented to foreign diplomatic
missions or consulates for identification purposes. In the absence of an accredited diplomatic or
consular office of the supposed country of origin, requests to the competent authorities of the country
are sent via the Department of Consular Services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If no response is
received from the authorities of the supposed country of origin, the requests are sent repeatedly. In
practice this means that if the identity of the person has not been confirmed soon after detention, the
detainee will likely be in custody until the maximum period is exhausted.
30)
In this context, it is important to note that some positive legislative changes such as the introduction of
alternatives to detention and judicial review of immigration detention have been adopted since
Ukraine’s previous UPR examination. However, there is significant scope for improvement, and a
number of problems remain.
31)
After legislative amendments, since 18 June 2016, immigration detention is possible only after a court
decision has been made. However, while detention consequently requires a court order “to detain at a
Migrant Detention Centre (MDC)”, research shows that since the regulations have come into force,
numerous people were detained following court decisions to ‘expel’. As detention should only be used
8