documentation. Estimates for the size of the stateless population vary significantly. In 2021, UNHCR
reported 35,875 people who were stateless or had ‘undetermined nationality’, only 6,047 of whom were
recorded as legally residing in Ukraine. Many tens of thousands more are thought to be at risk of
statelessness including 10-20% of the Roma population and 55% of children born in nongovernmentcontrolled areas (NGCA) and Crimea since 2014. According to the World Bank, 999,000 people over 15
years-old reside in Ukraine without a national ID card. Although not all will be stateless, most will be
unable to prove their Ukrainian citizenship through documentation and may be at increased risk of
statelessness. Ukraine introduced a statelessness determination procedure in 2021 to determine who is
stateless on its territory and grant them protection. By the end of 2021, only 55 people had been granted
a temporary residence permit through this procedure; and more than 800 had applied and been
documented with a certificate of application confirming legal stay.”
US DOS, Annual report on human rights in 2021, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Ukraine,
12 April 2022
"Romani activists expressed concern that some Roma could not afford to flee conflict areas, while others
had no choice but to leave their homes. […] The crowd shouted anti-Roma slurs and threatened violence
against the Romani community as collective punishment for the attack. The crowd also shot fireworks at
a Romani family’s house, broke the entrance gate, and spray-painted “get out” on the fence around the
house. Local police characterized the incident as a protest of civic activists. […] According to Council of
Europe experts, 60 percent of Roma were unemployed, 40 percent had no documents, and only 1 percent
had a university degree. According to the Romani women’s foundation, Chirikli, local authorities erected
a number of barriers to prevent issuing national identification documents to Roma. […] Authorities
hampered access to education for persons who lacked documents and segregated Romani children into
special schools or lower-quality classrooms. Officials also expressed anti-Roma sentiments and
encouraged discrimination. […] Many Roma fled settlements in areas controlled by Russia-led forces and
moved elsewhere in the country. According to Chirikli, approximately 10,000 Roma were among the most
vulnerable members of the country’s IDP population. Many Romani IDPs lacked documents, and obtaining
IDP assistance, medical care, and education was especially difficult […]"
ADC Memorial, Romani Voices from Hell: Discrimination, Epidemic, War, 8 April 2022
"The war has brought suffering to every Ukrainian home. Many Roma families have tried to leave and save
themselves from violence. But not everyone is able to become a refugee – many do not have documents
or any money at all. Some simply were not able to leave the regions that the war reached first right away."
UN Women – UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (replaces UNIFEM, DAW,
INSTRAW, OSAGI), Rapid gender analysis in Ukraine reveals different impacts and needs of women and
men, 5 April 2022
“Roma women and girls also face particular challenges in accessing education, which is often not
encouraged. The lack of civil status documentation, which particularly affects the Roma (56 per cent of
internally displaced interviewed by the Roma Women Fund “Chirikli” in 2017 were not registered), is also
limiting access to humanitarian assistance.”
Thomas Reuters Foundation News, Ukraine's stateless trapped in warzone with no proof they exist, 4 April
2022
" * Tens of thousands of stateless people in Ukraine * Lack of ID documents leaves many trapped in
warzones […] When the air raid sirens sound at night, Svitlana Honcharova takes her two young sons to
the cellar under their apartment in the Ukrainian city of Sumy and prays they will still be alive in the
morning. Although thousands have fled Russia’s bombardment of Sumy in the far northeast, 31-year-old
51
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents