User Name: Dmitry Country of birth: Soviet Union (Russia) Arrival in the Czech Republic: 2001 | Stateless since: 1991 | Current legal status: none Dmitry has been living in the Czech Republic for 17 years. He arrived when he was 44 years old on the basis of a valid visa and a passport issued by the Soviet Union. He was born in a labour camp in Siberia; he has no certificate of birth. He spent part of his life in Ukraine with his parents. He spent another part of his life in the Russian Federation where he had a wife and children. The situation worsened for them and Dmitry and his wife left for the Czech Republic. Their children were taken care of and so they stayed. Upon his arrival, Dmitry had applied for international protection but the procedure was discontinued and, in the meantime, the validity of his Soviet passport had expired. Since then, he unsuccessfully tried to obtain a new travel document, both at the Ukrainian and Russian embassies. However, neither of the two countries consider him a citizen and so both refused to issue him any document. Afterwards, Dmitry lived in the Czech Republic irregularly and tried to make a living as an unregistered worker. He has always done heavy manual work and has suffered several injuries in the process. He could not leave the country, neither could he obtain a residence permit in the Czech Republic. His wife passed away and he has not been in contact with his children for many years. In 2011, Dmitry received a decision on administrative expulsion without the possibility to return for three years. However, he was unable to comply because he could not travel to Russia or Ukraine. In 2013, Dmitry was found guilty by a court in criminal proceedings for failing to comply with the administrative expulsion and sentenced to expulsion without the possibility to return for two years. Eight months later, he was sentenced again for frustrating the performance of the previous expulsion sentence. This time, he was sentenced to expulsion without the possibility to return for three years. Two years later, in 2015, he was again punished for frustrating previous decisions and sentenced to expulsion without the possibility to return for five years and imprisoned for 10 months. After serving the prison sentence, Dmitry remained in prison, this time on the grounds of expulsion custody. He spent 10 more months there, during which time the police unsuccessfully attempted to expel him. After several months in custody, in March 2017, he lodged an application pursuant to Section 8 (d) of the Asylum Act to be recognised as stateless. Neither the MoI, nor the criminal court responded thereto. Five months later, the latter decided to suspend the execution of the expulsion sentence on the grounds that expulsion is not achievable. Dmitry was released from prison but stayed in the country without a legal status or any possibility to resolve his residence situation. He is not eligible to receive a tolerated stay visa since he was recorded in the register of undesirable persons on account of the numerous expulsion orders he was subjected to. He has applied for international protection a number of times and always with zero success. He is still unable to leave the country. The MoI has not responded to his application lodged pursuant to Section 8 (d) of the Asylum Act. For this reason, Dmitry petitioned the administrative court. His claim was upheld in November 2017, while the court found unlawful delays in the procedure and ordered the Ministry to make a decision within 30 days. Nevertheless, nothing has happened since then. In 2018, Dmitry was stopped by the Foreign Police and received another decision on administrative expulsion without the possibility to return for three years. This time, he was subjected to an alternative to detention in the form of a duty to report to the Foreign Police every week. He failed to comply once because of a misunderstanding and was consequently detained again for the purposes of administrative expulsion. As of the date of the research, Dmitry was held at a detention facility. The originally prescribed detention period had been extended and so the detention was to last for a maximum legal period of six months. The MoI has still not responded to Dmitry’s application in the statelessness determination procedure. In administrative decisions, he is referred to as a citizen of the Russian Federation. 56 Faces of Statelessness in the Czech Republic