Syrian Citizenship Disappeared older than him; someone who knows him well to remember his real age, a matter we have managed with great difficulty. Although we have submitted all the required papers, that did not work, and none of us who submitted get an ID. “ Venus al-Mohammed, an alias, made numerous attempts to resolve her legal status as maktumah, and paid bribes to employees of the Personal Status Department, but none of this worked. Mustafa Ouso, lawyer, explained to STJ that even the ajanib, that the decree specifically addressed and granted the citizenship to, came across difficulties to regularise their situation; “One of the obstacles faced by the ajanib included within Decree No. 49 is that they had moved years ago from their places of origin to other areas such as Damascus, Aleppo among others. All of them were forced to come back to al-Hasakah province in order to resolve their legal status and complement the paperwork required for the regularisation. This, in turn, required birth certificates issued by the mukhtar, a security check and extra costs. The decree states that the maktum of an ajnabi father can resolve his status and become also ajnabi, along with his sons, if he provides proof of paternity.” 16.2. Anguish Even in the Countries of Asylum The lack of prospects urged countless stateless Syrian Kurds to emigrate, especially between 2004 and 2011. Even then, their status hampered their endeavour: suffering the restrictions imposed on travelling abroad, many were forced to pursue dangerous smuggling routes and once they reached the countries of asylum, hardships and troubles started over again. Dlo Mohammed, a pseudonym, explained that the failure to obtain the Syrian nationality pre- 50 cipitated her decision to immigrate to meet her fiance: “I don’t want to stay here anymore. I just want to have the chance to travel and reunite with my fiancé and marry far from here. I don’t want my children to experience the deprivation we did. I’ve been trying to travel for a year now and join my fiancé in Germany, but I still await for the permission from the German Embassy located in Irbil in Kurdistan region that has yet to come because I am maktumah with no legal documents proving my personality.” Zahra Ramadan faced obstacles in the country of asylum because of her legal status as ajnabiyah, too. The troubles arose when she wanted to work on her papers and her children’s to reunite with her husband who was in Germany. She explains how the administrative formalities she had completed in Al Hasakah proved to be fruitless with regards to her official national status: “All of us obtained passports from the Immigration and Passport Department located in al-Hasakah. Then we travelled to Turkey having all our papers. My husband travelled by boat to Germany and sent a family reunion request to us. Unfortunately I lost my passport in Turkey so I hired a lawyer in Hama province to issue passports for me and my little son. Prior to that we were harassed and exploited by offices and persons in Turkey who issued me forged passports, and I knew later that they were used to do so; they probably had connections with the Syrian opposition. After that, the lawyer told us that my husband and I were recorded as ajanib and my children as maktumeen. At that point I gave the power of attorney to my sister who was living in Syria to start correcting our official papers as it was evident that all the procedures done in al-Hasakah were not registered in the official records in Damascus at all. Then