In some rare cases the authorities recommend applicants apply to the court to establish their identity.73 Applicants are referred to undergo a court procedure when the SMS is unable to establish the identity of an applicant for an internal passport. This could happen in cases where there are no records about an applicant in the relevant registries or at the disposal of any legal entity on the territory of Ukraine and where there are no witnesses able to testify to the applicant’s identity. This deters applicants from continuing with the application necessary to access their personal documents. Some Roma who came to Ukraine before 1991 may be unable to provide the authorities with proof of their identity or their residence registration before independence in 1991. They are de facto stateless persons74 in Ukraine and not recognized before the law as citizens. In order to be provided with citizenship, they need to initiate what is frequently a very complicated procedure whereby they need to prove they had legal residence in Ukraine before 24 August 1991.75 In a number of cases it has been reported that in addition to the fines imposed on such applicants (see below), this situation presents a major obstacle to registering children at birth and leads to the intergenerational problem of Roma lacking identification. Financial aspects of administrative and court procedures for obtaining personal documents Given the deep poverty in which many Roma live, it is also very important to note the financial aspects of administrative procedures for access to internal passports or birth registration. While the State’s policy not to enact fees for a first issuance of an internal passport has improved access to personal documents for Roma, there are a number of other costs that should be borne in mind. First there is the issue of fines imposed on persons without identification, persons registering their children more than one month after their birth, or de facto stateless persons with passports from the Soviet Union whose status in Ukraine is not legally regulated. Under Article 203 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences, a person without personal identification or with invalid or outdated identification could be fined the equivalent of between 30 and 50 months’ worth of the tax-exempt minimum wage.76 Also, in cases when parents fail to register their children’s birth by the one-month deadline, there is a fine imposed on them after they initiate the procedure for late birth registration (Art. 212-1).77 In a number of discussions and interviews with Roma in Ukraine they stated that this is one of the obstacles precluding them from accessing personal identification. The problem of relatively high court fees hampering Roma access to the courts was also raised by NGOs providing legal aid for Roma without personal documents, such as the organizations 73 As reported during the meetings with the relevant NGOs in Uzhgorod, in Odesa and especially with IDPs in Merefa (Kharkiv region) held on 17 March 2017, 28 March 2017 and 31 March 2017. 74 Ukraine does not have a statelessness determination procedure in place, and therefore one of the main recommendations from a number of civil society organizations and the UNHCR is the introduction of a statelessness determination procedure. 75 According to interviews with the Roma community in the Odesa region on 28 March 2017. 76 Op. cit., note 57, p. 8. Non-taxable income (NTI) is 17 UAH. 30 NTI = 510 UAH (approximately 17 EUR) and 50 NTI is approximately 28 EUR. 77 Ibid. 31