Syrian Citizenship Disappeared 3.5.15. The Tragedy of the Stateless Denied to Confirm the Births Mahmoud Ahmad Khalil, was born in Hasoud town, in Qamishli, in 1977, in a family whose members were citizens or stateless as a result of the 1962 census. He is now married and has children. He recalled the obstacles he, as an ajnabi, encountered in registering his children at the Personal Status Department: “While it took citizens a single day to registered the birth of their children in the records, I had to hire a lawyer to do so, and it took more than a month SYP 300 bribes for each child. I was forced to go to the Political Security branch and the police station to write a record and bring witnesses2¹¹⁵.” For Mohammed Khair Ayed Ismael, being ajnabi prevented him from registering his children in the Personal Status Department. All he could do was registering them at the mukhtar, after a security check of their familial situation: “I named my youngest son Mohammed Mashouq after the Sheikh Mohammed Mashouq al-Khaznawi. I went to register him at the mukhtar who asked the usual questions. He also requested I change the child’s name on the pretext that it was rejected. I paid him SYP 500 and he registered the name ¹¹⁶.” The legal status of Mahmoud Ali also deprived him from the right to record his children officially, noting that some ajanib paid bribes up to SYP 10,000 in 1970 for the registration of the children. He recounted the efforts he deployed to register his marriage: “One day, I wanted to register my marriage according to the Islamic Sharia and someone told me that I was a stateless with no rights in the country so I shouldn’t marry and de115 STJ’s field researcher conducted direct interview with him in Qamishli in March 2018. 116 STJ's field researcher conducted direct interview with him in Qamishli in March 2018. 42 prive my children from the rights too. Those were the most painful words I have ever heard, I wish I had disappeared.” Zahra Ramadan was born in Qamishli in 1981, and is now married with 4 children. She recalled the hardships of registering her children in the Personal Status Department, a lengthy process induced by the Political Security Division’s prolonged investigations. She added that the special census created some disparities among her family members, her mother remaining a Syrian national while her father became ajnabi. Zahra and the rest of her siblings therefore became maktumeen. Following attempts to resolve their legal status, they became ajanib in 1991 in Qamishli. ¹¹⁷ Midia Hasan, an alias, recounted that her former legal status caused several hardships as no one wished to propose to marry her. She was engaged to a young man residing in the United Arab Emirates but they broke up as a result of her inability to travel abroad. Suhaila Mohammed Ali described tha when young men learned she was stateless, they changed their mind and no longer wanted to marry her. 6.15. The Right to Freedom of Movement 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. 2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 13, Universal Declaration of Human Rights 117 The interview was conducted via the Internet in 2018. The witness is living in Germany as a refugee.