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ISI interviewed Aleksejs, a non-citizen from Latvia, on his experiences of fleeing the Ukraine war, as a stateless person.Read the full interview here!

Hello everyone, we are the International Defense Association. We accept free citizenship applications from stateless people around the world. We have established a constitutional monitoring state in Bir Tawil, an unclaimed land. We look forward to people from all walks of life to assist stateless people in obtaining citizenship. For details, please refer to the FB page: @CSSIDA 。

Hi everyone!The Institute on statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) is so excited to see the launch of StateFree World and we are really excited to begin using this platform!About UsISI the first and only human rights NGO dedicated to promoting the right to nationality and the rights of stateless people globally. Our mission is centered around working together to counter discrimination and intolerance and promote inclusive societies by realising and protecting everyone’s right to a nationality. Our vision is a world in which everyone’s right to a nationality is respected, securing inclusion, equality and access to rights for all.How we Work:We have three core programmes and five priority areasCore Pr

Hello everyone! So nice to see a Statefree platform being active and helpful for the stateless community around the world! My name is Nevenka and I am here as an ally. I work in an Roma NGO in Montenegro. Roma community in Europe is one of the most affected by statelessness and Phiren Amenca and me (as part of that organization) are doing everything we can to strengthen the Roma and Egyptians in Montenegro and Western Balkan region. We don’t see affected people as cases, we see them as neighbors and family deprived of their rights. 

First, a disclaimer. I am not a lawyer, so all I found and write here is at best an educated guess. And I recognize that the fight against the laws, rules and regulations that keep people stateless is the first priority. Some might refuse to even consider any shortcuts to freedom like marriage or adoption, because it is degrading to subordinate such deeply personal matters to the circumvention of laws and regulations, no matter how bad these are. In the view of this and the many difficulties and problems with adoption, I can only guess that for many stateless people adoption is not an acceptable way to go.On the other hand there may be a few situations where marriage or adoption are appropriate for one reason or another. In such a case it is useful to know the rules and to know what to expect. Marriage is an obvious case. I have not found a legal rule that marriage, or adoption, always conveys statehood, but I’m as good as certain that it does.I will write about some o

I’m Hans-Georg (he/his) or just Hans, if the double name is too awkward. I’m German, but still got a taste of what it means to be unable to travel the world. I grew up in East Germany, the former GDR, a country in which the German word “Weltreise” (voyage around the world) was removed from dictionaries and in which people were shot when trying to cross the border. Think of the Berlin Wall. I eventually escaped, along with a circle of friends, which took three years of preparation. West Germany recognizes all Germans, no matter where they lived. So for me it was only all too easy to walk into the office and get a passport. Now that I’m reading here, I understand how lucky I was and still am. Looking for a job, I got a job offer that I could not refuse. One of my escaped friends and I went to East Africa, working on a computer system for foreign trade statistics in Nairobi, Kenya. A year later Kenya had become my second home. Geographically I knew it much b

My name is Guille (he/him). I’m a geographer, and I am trying to collaborate with statelessness everyday doing my research about the global situation of stateless people in the world and composing a graphical and cartographic analysis. It is a writing to expose the reality of being undocumented and also to make awareness in the rest of the Spanish society about sahrawi issue.That is why I am here, I joined to be an ally and create a bigger community where people can discuss their situation, but most important, people can feel that they are not alone. I hope that Statefree become a special place where people can feel free to express themselves.Thank you for inviting me!With joy and hugs from Spain!

Hello everyone, my name is Taryn! I’m a 21-year-old undergraduate student and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I was born and raised on the east coast of the United States, about 3 hours from the capital of Washington, D.C. I love collecting postcards, reading short literary fiction stories, and bullet journaling.Growing up with a migrant mother, I have always been interested in displacement and knew I wanted to devote my academic studies to this area. Naturally, I became acquainted with statelessness through my work and quickly realized how understudied it was across the world-- especially in the United States.I wanted to learn more about statelessness and how I could assist stateless persons here in the US. At the end of 2020, I connected with United Stateless and joined the organization as an intern and volunteer. Working with United

I am originally from Riga, Latvia. Just like over 200,000 people in Latvia, I am a “non-citizen” of the country, effectively de facto stateless. It’s a complicated history, but in a nutshell minorities were deprived of equal access to citizenship when the country became independent from the USSR. Pre-independence there were official promises made by leading politicians that this will not happen, but these turned out to be completely misleading. The country never bothered to reconcile this history.I am more lucky compared to other stateless in Latvia because I grew up in the U.S. and Canada, where I was able to access equal opportunities in education and employment. However, when I made a difficult decision to move back to Europe despite my statelessness, I encountered discrimination and other problems due to it. In September 2020, I founded Apatride Network (www.apatride.eu), which works to connect and empower stateless people from all backgrounds in the European Union. Chris

I am Victoria a #statefree person living in Germany. I was pretty shocked when I learned how many people are stateless globally but also in Germany.Looking forward to meeting other stateless people on this forum and learning more about how it affects people in different countries.😊

In case you are in the process of opening a bank account in Germany: We recently tried to open one for Statefree. As you can imagine, verifying my identity was a bit of a hassle, but it did work in the end. We chose the “Postident” process and I was surprised that there was at least a little knowledge around different forms of identity documentation stateless people have.  My context: I have a “Reiseausweis für Ausländer” aka travel document for foreigners and a residence permitThe bank:  GLS Bank Ways that didn’t work:  Verific

Hi everyone. I’m a YouTuber and I’m very interested in making a video (or videos) about statelessness for my channel. I’ve never been stateless myself, but I have immigrated (from the US to the UK). That was a relatively straightforward process, but I do understand the stress of having your life determined by documents and government officials. I first became interested in statelessness as an issue when I made a video about Western Sahara, and learned there are many stateless Sahrawis in Europe especially. But I’ve been learning more about the issue and I realise that there are many different ways to be stateless! I’m keen to learn more and hope I can help bring more awareness to the issue.PS my pronouns are he/him. 

 Welcome to the space for knowledge & insights from people’s experiences  What this space is forThis category is for you to Ask for advice and other people’s experiences ‍♂️ around statelessness issues that affect you Proactively share experiences  that might help other stateless people or allies 

Welcome to the space for facts and figures around statelessness!  What this space is forThis category is for you to Share facts, scientific findings or academic work  on statelessness  Ask the community for insights