THE PROBLEM OF STATELESSNESS IN UKRAINE AND THE WAYS OF ADDRESSING IT
Ukraine.
In addition, it is reasonable to reduce the requirement under Article 9(3)
of permanent lawful residence in the territory of Ukraine as a condition for
acquisition of citizenship of Ukraine by stateless persons, regardless of whether
they entered Ukraine as stateless persons or their citizenship was terminated
after their entry into Ukraine.
Similarly to persons granted refugee status in Ukraine under Article 9(6), it is
reasonable to cancel the requirement for stateless persons to meet the condition
of availability of lawful means of subsistence, abolish the requirement that
obtaining an immigration permit be a prerequisite for their access to naturalization
and to provide them with a right to naturalization following a shorter period of
residence in Ukraine.
The legislation in force needs to be amended to provide adequate procedural
guarantees for those stripped of Ukrainian citizenship and regulate the legal
status of individuals who are challenging such decisions in courts.
The provisions on restoration of Ukrainian citizenship make the restoration
impossible for persons concerning whom the decisions on acquisition of
citizenship under Articles 8 (by territorial origin) and 10 (through restoration)
were cancelled, which may entail a permanent statelessness situation.
Therefore, a possibility of restoring Ukrainian citizenship for such persons should
be envisaged. Besides, it is necessary to provide for a possibility of restoring
Ukrainian citizenship for persons who lost Ukrainian citizenship because of its
acquisition through a fraud, deliberate submission of untrue information or false
documents.
As to restoration of Ukrainian citizenship for children, it is reasonable to introduce
a simplified procedure for restoration of Ukrainian citizenship for children whose
Ukrainian citizenship was terminated, without conditioning such restoration on
submission of an obligation to renounce foreign citizenship.
Considering that the Law does not authorize the State Migration Service of
Ukraine to verify Ukrainian citizenship of persons residing in the territory of
Ukraine, this complicates the situation with verification of Ukrainian citizenship of
persons with uncertain citizenship, for example persons belonging to the Roma
national minority. To fill this gap, such competence should be granted to the State
Migration Service and should be enshrined in the Law or the relevant by-laws.
Last but not least, the Law of Ukraine on Citizenship of Ukraine does not include
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