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Jany-Kyshtak village, Osh Province, 8 October– A crowd of women, men, and children surround legal counsels of a mobile clinic. All of them want to gain information on how to obtain identity documents and access to all of citizen’s entitlements.

Generation without passports

Munojat Orokova received her Kyrgyz passport when she turned forty. Her parents did not have documents, so it was very complicated for her to get a passport. “I got married and for some reason I was registered as daughter of my parents-in-law. This year I turned forty and finally got my passport. I have eight children. Two of them were born in a maternity clinic, the rest were born at home. None of my children has a birth certification”.

The birth certification  is the only document to prove the identity of the child, provide an access to state social programmes, eventually receive passport”.

36-year old Koria Urmanova has never had a passport. She came to seek lawyer’s advice and support on how and where to submit documents to obtain a passport.

“My parents died when I was a young child. When the time came to get a passport, I did not know where my birth certificate was. Thus, I did not get the passport. I married, and gave birth to six children. Thanks to this UNHCR project, my eldest son, who has just turned twelve, received his birth certificate. I hope that all my children and myself will eventually get proper documents!” said Koria.

Jany-Kyshtak village is located at the outskirts of Osh city where at least 30-50% of the 3,700 inhabitants never obtained valid documentary proof of citizenship of Kyrgyzstan or any other state for more than 35 years. The majority of Jany-Kyshtak’s inhabitants are Lyulis, a group of Roma people who originated from Tajikistan and have lived in the area for more than 200 years. Some older members of the of the Lyuli community still hold now invalid USSR passports. Thus, this community is weakly integrated into the society.

Reasons for “limbo”

Azizbek Ashurov, director of the public foundation “Ferghana Valley Lawyers without Borders", a UNHCR implementing partner, listed the main reasons of statelessness in Kyrgyzstan.

“First is the collapse of USSR. People did not exchange their Soviet passports and became stateless. Second is non-harmonized legislation in different countries. People moved from one country to another, got married, thus finding themselves in situations that would not be envisaged by the states national laws. Such gaps in legislations led to impossibility of acquiring a citizenship.

Third is the bureaucracy.”

However, there are some other reasons. According to Ruslan Urinov, the head of Jany-Kyshtak village, a low level of public awareness has created generations of undocumented people. Some people have never taken actions to obtain the documents. "I hold many meetings with residents to raise awareness on the importance of documents. Since these people were previously nomads, they never were documented. This explains why parents did not have documents and never got documents for their children. Now the situation is changing. People want to get documents and they need advice and support”, said Ruslan Urinov.

In addition, he notes that children do not have the documents because they were born at home instead of hospitals. If parents are not documented, they cannot obtain birth certificates and passports for their children.

Horizons

The public foundation “Ferghana Valley Lawyers without Borders" is one of the implementing partners of UNHCR in the Kyrgyz Republic that provides legal aid to stateless people and persons at risk of statelessness.

Azizbek Ashurov said that undocumented people do not have access to public healthcare services, social allowances, employment, and other services.

Despite the particular traditions and marginalized life style of Lyuli, they have started to understand the importance of education and identity documents.  The Lyuli village school admits children even without documents. According to the principal of the village school, she can see the increased interest of parents to educate their children.

“I am happy to see these children in my school. I have accepted them without identity documents because education is the right of everyone in our country. 245 out of 544 children study without documents. I believe in these children!” said Gulchehra Abdullaeva, principal of the village school.

Within the 6 months period of the project which included information and consultations session on how to obtain passports and birth certificates, 330 members of the Lyuli community received free legal assistance.106 individuals obtained identification documents allowing them to access medical services, child support and execute their right to vote. Among those that received documents were 27 members of the Lyuli community who exchanged their old USSR passports for valid Kyrgyz ones and 34 who received birth certificates. In addition, the Conflict Commissions on Determination of Kyrgyz Citizenship handed out 31 positive decisions, and in 14 cases the courts decided positively on the registration of births.

Statistics

The project in Jany-Kyshtak village   represents just a small fraction of UNHCR’s efforts in Kyrgyzstan to assist more than 20,000 holders of USSR passports and stateless persons (estimated as of June 2013) to gain proper identity documents. As a result of UNHCR’s efforts, approximately 6,800 individuals exchanged USSR passports of 1974 and received Kyrgyz passports between January and August 2013. The UN refugee agency works in close cooperation with Kyrgyz state authorities and civil society both in the south and the north of Kyrgyzstan in order to prevent and reduce statelessness for as many people as possible.

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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees leads and co-ordinates humanitarian action to protect refugees, asylum-seekers, and stateless people in Kyrgyzstan.  UNHCR provides assistance to the state authorities in establishing fair and efficient asylum systems, preventing and reducing statelessness. UNHCR assists population affected by June 2010 event in the south of the country.

For more information please contact Ainagul Abdrakhmanova, National Public Information Officer at 0775 988 558 or abdrakh@unhcr.org