Prisoners and released prisoners 30. Special emphasis should be placed on prisoners and released prisoners among those former Soviet citizens at risk of statelessness. For example, some of these people were imprisoned before the breakup of the Soviet Union and released in independent states where the law does not allow people who have criminal records to become citizens. Others were already stateless without valid identity documents when they entered prison. Both groups have very little chance of obtaining legal status: Article 16.1(h) of the law “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation” classifies unexpunged and outstanding convictions as grounds for rejecting citizenship applications and requires a certificate on the absence of convictions from “new” migrants applying for temporary residence. The Ministry of Justice issues a decision on the undesirability of stay in Russia for a stateless person released from prison on the basis of which they are immediately sent to a SITDFN “until expulsion”. When making this decision, the Ministry does not consider whether the person is indeed removeable. Consequently, such detention of persons who have served criminal sentences and are subsequently denied their access to nationality, is arbitrary. 31. It must be noted in this regard that the general measures set out in the ECHR ruling on the case of “Kim vs Russia” on preventing stateless persons from being detained as “violators of migration rules” have not been implemented by the Russian authorities: even Roman Kim, the applicant of the case, has not been provided so far with any document that would permit him to live legally in Russia. Inhuman conditions in CTDFNs and lack of oversight26 32. Stateless persons can be detained for two years (which can be even longer in practice) in conditions that the European Court found to be inhuman and degrading and that are in many ways worse than prison conditions. CTDFNs are mixed, housing men and women in the same facilities, built for men, with scant consideration of requirements for gender sensitivity. All detainees suffer from overcrowding, poor nutrition, and deprivation of freedom of movement and exercise. They are not able to use their own money, to work or engage in meaningful activities, and there are no conditions for sport or leisure activities, no access to qualified medical or legal aid, no regular contact with the outside world, and no place for extended visits. Unlike in the case of people suspected of criminal offences, free legal assistance is not provided to CTDFN detainees. There are documented cases of violence against detainees perpetrated by guards and special police forces, as well as arbitrary behaviour by the CTDFNs administration. 33. These same conditions apply to foreign nationals held in CTDFNs. These detainees are mainly labour migrants from Central Asian countries (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan), and some citizens from former Soviet countries like Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Besides, there are also nationals from further afield, like China, Vietnam, and African and Latin American countries. Many of the detainees are women who are victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. 34. Foreign national detainees of CTDFNs are usually found to have violated the migration regime by failing to leave the Russian Federation at the end of their terms of stay (and, in the case of citizens of Ukraine and Syria, where military operations are in progress, because they are not granted refugee status or temporary asylum). These people are all subject to expulsion under court rulings. However, since these court rulings give no indication of any term of detention or deadline for expulsion, it is not uncommon to find people who have been held in SITDFNs for over a year, and even four to five years with short breaks. This occurs because of the absence of clear norms in migration laws on expulsion, the lack of 26 The inhuman conditions in CTDFNs and lack of oversight are described in detail in the report of ADC Memorial “Violations of the Rights of Stateless Persons and Foreign Citizens in Light of the ECHR Judgment in “Kim v. Russia”(2016), available at: https://adcmemorial.org/wp-content/uploads/kim1_bigENG_www.pdf 8