Name: Country of origin: Date of arrival in UK: Time in detention: Time in limbo: Current status: Tauy (Participant 3) Belarus February 2002 N/A 60 months None Tauy is 59 and is from Belarus. He claimed asylum in 2002, but the claim was refused and he exhausted his appeal rights in 2005. He has since spent over five years in limbo in the UK. He has not been able to leave the UK because he has been unable to establish an entitlement to Belarusian or any other nationality. He has not seen his four children for over 10 years. Tauy applied three times for Assisted Voluntary Return, and a letter dated December 2006 from IOM (which at that time ran the scheme for the government) confirmed that it had been unable to facilitate his departure. The letter confirms that the IOM had arranged interviews with the Belarus embassy in February and November 2006 in an effort to obtain travel documents. Neither had succeeded. The Belarus embassy “confirmed that he was not recognised by them as a citizen of Belarus” and that “there was no need to put this in writing as they have no responsibility for him”. The IOM letter also notes that interviews were subsequently arranged in December 2006 with both the Russian and Ukrainian embassies (countries with which Tauy had relevant connections) but that both embassies had refused to issue travel documents “stating that from the documentation he has presented that he is a citizen of Belarus”. The documentation in question was a copy of Tauy’s expired Belarusian passport. The original had, at that time, been lost by the UK Border Agency.212 This was one reason why the Belarus embassy refused to accept him as a national. In 2008, Tauy made further submissions in respect of his asylum claim which were, in part, based on his statelessness. The UK Border Agency dismissed the further submissions in 2010 and subsequently withdrew the support and accommodation that Tauy had been receiving while the submissions were under consideration. The UK Border Agency’s position was set out in a letter to Tauy’s MP from April 2010. It stated: “Unfortunately the UK Border Agency is unable to issue a travel document for Mr [blanked] to return to Belarus as these can only be issued by the authorities for his home country, i.e. the Belarus Embassy.” “As with all passport applications for foreign nationals, the embassy will require proof of the applicant’s identity and nationality. This is a matter between Mr [blanked] and the Belarus Embassy and the UK Border Agency is unable to assist. I am sorry that I cannot help further with this enquiry.” This letter did not mention that, in fact, it was the UK Border Agency that had been responsible for the loss of the original passport. It also overlooked the fact that Tauy’s UK Border Agency file contained a letter that had been faxed by the Belarusian embassy in March 2007 confirming that Tauy was not considered one of their nationals. There is 212 Following his interview for the research in February 2011, the participant emailed to say that his original expired passport had finally been located and returned to him by the UKBA. in the United Kingdom 85