Stories & Experiences

Memdeklaro empowers people to create their own self-declaration of identity - a physical or digital self-asserted ID card containing their self-chosen name, birth date and photo.Memdeklaro does not require permission from third parties such as birth countries or birth parents, and does not require an existing birth certificate, national ID card or passport.The Memdeklaro project believes that people should not be judged based on where they were born or who they were born to, but judged only on their own beliefs and actions. As an adult, people should be able to break free from the confines of their circumstances of birth, and self-declare their own beliefs, identity and personal ties. This is vital for people escaping from abuse or danger, such as refugees, dissidents, conscientious objectors, stateless people, survivors of child abuse, and survivors of cult abuse.You can generate your own self-declaration for free using the privacy-friendly web app at https://memdeklaro.orgSimilar pro

I was born in Istanbul, Türkiye, on 3 December 1976. At birth, I was a Greek citizen through my parents, who belonged to the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and were registered in the Municipality of Neo Sidirochori, Rhodope, Greece.When I was only nine years old, my life changed forever.On 29 August 1986, I lost my Greek citizenship under the former Article 19 of the Greek Citizenship Code—a law that disproportionately affected members of the Turkish Muslim Minority of Western Thrace. I had no voice, no opportunity to defend myself, and no understanding of what citizenship even meant. Yet I lost it.Although Article 19 was repealed in 1998, my citizenship was never restored. Like thousands of others affected by this law, I have continued to live with the consequences.Today, I am still stateless.I legally reside in Türkiye under a humanitarian residence permit and rely on a 1954 Convention Travel Document. Every time I need to renew this document, the process takes months, during whi

Hallo liebe Community,mein Name ist Teoman Thomas Gülec , bin in Köln geboren am 12.10.1969 - bin staatenlos wegen nicht Erfüllung des Militär Dienstes in der Türkei ! Seit 2002 bin ich staatenlos und bekommen seitdem nur eine Duldung von 6 Monaten von der ausländerbehörde Köln ! Darf arbeiten (arbeite seit 3 Jahren bei Lindt Schokoladen Fabrik in Aachen ) aber darf mich nur in Köln anmelden , darf mich nicht bei meiner Familie anmelden die in Aachen wohnt habe 2 Kinder beide haben die deutsche Staatsbürgerschaft meine nicht eheliche Partnerin ist tschechische Staatsbürgerin !Hatte genügend Anwälte aber hat alles nichts genützt nur Nerven und Geld ! Bin verzweifelt , weiß nicht wie alles weitergehen soll ! Bräuchte Hilfe aber weiß nicht von wem ! Mit freundlichen Grüßen von Teoman Thomas Gülec dem Staatenlosen …! 

I am an autistic adult currently in Serbia and I urgently need help finding the right organizations to contact.I am in severe autistic burnout. Phone communication is inaccessible to me. I cannot maintain ordinary correspondence on my own and I need written-only communication.My situation involves ongoing violence, harm to health, and material loss. I am also facing disability-related barriers in communication and access to protection. I do not have Serbian citizenship, which seems to make access to help even harder.I am not looking for hotlines, phone numbers, or generic advice. I need to know which organizations, networks, advocates, or support structures can actually help in a case like this through written communication only, ideally in Russian or at least in simple English.If anyone knows: disability rights organizations autism advocacy groups statelessness / migrant / refugee support organizations human rights organizations people or groups who can provide a written inter

I’ve been reflecting deeply on the core mission here at Statefree specifically the tension between our professional contributions and our legal recognition.In my work with Blue Nile Livery, I spend my days ensuring seamless mobility and "access" for others. It creates a strange, daily irony: I am part of a team that manages high-end transportation and logistical freedom for clients, yet as a stateless person, my own freedom of movement is restricted by a lack of a passport. It’s a constant reminder that you can be "integrated" into the economy and provide a premium service to your community, yet still remain an outsider in the eyes of the state.I’m curious to hear from others in the community: How do you handle the "double life" of professional success versus legal invisibility? Do you find that your professional identity (whether in services like mine or other fields) helps you feel a sense of belonging, or does it only make the lack of formal citizenship feel more glaring? I'd love t

Hello to everyone Today, I am speaking as a stateless person who has lived for many years in a legal vacuum — and as someone who no longer wants to remain silent.I have experienced statelessness not only as a legal condition, but as a life without a voice. When you have no nationality, no identity, and no clear legal status, you gradually learn to live quietly. You learn not to ask too many questions. You learn not to be visible. You learn that silence feels safer than hope.For many years, this was my life.My wife, my child, and I are stateless. We have never belonged to any country, never been protected by any state, and never lived with legal certainty. Because of statelessness, our lives have been shaped by fear, waiting, and unanswered applications.Through this long and painful experience, I realized something very important:People like me understand each other without needing explanations.Stateless and migrant people often cannot speak for themselves — not because they have nothin

Stateless for Three Generations: Legally Invisible, Alive but UnprotectedIn this image, you see a family. Silent, with their eyes closed…Because there are no words left to explain.We are not a statistic.We are a family that has been made stateless for three generations.We belong to no country, no legal identity, and no future.We are not citizens of any state — but we are human.And this contradiction leaves us alive, yet unprotected, every single day of our lives.In 2002, I was formally recognized as a refugee by UNHCR.Yet this recognition remained only on paper. For 23 years, no identity document, no residence permit, no travel document, and no basic rights were ever granted. My wife was born stateless. My daughter was born into this same invisibility. A child was rendered legally nonexistent from the moment she was born.Statelessness is not our choice.It is a punishment passed down to us.The 1951 Refugee Convention, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the

We, the stateless, carry one of the deepest yet most invisible wounds in the world.This reality is not just a legal deficiency; it is a chronic condition that spreads into every part of life, slowly consuming a person’s spirit, identity, and future. It is a problem that passes from one generation to the next, shaping even the destiny of our children. In society, we often feel like incomplete beings—excluded, unwanted, or less than others.When we walk into a government office or any institution, countless questions rise within us before we even step through the door:“What barrier will I face this time? Which procedure will be denied? Which right of mine will be ignored again?” And unfortunately, the answer is almost always the same:Belittling looks, humiliating treatment, files pushed to the back of shelves with a dismissive “we’ll look at it later”…And many times, we have witnessed those files ending up in the trash.We have seen our local cards thrown away right in front of us while we

Today, I spent a long time holding my phone. After a while, my eyes got tired and I fell asleep. Recently, I also dreamed about my mother, father, and all my family who have been separated. But this time, I had a different dream. In this dream, I was busy with my phone for a long time; I kept checking all my social media accounts over and over again. I was trying to see who cared about my life and my story, who had looked into our situation, who had found a solution to our statelessness — I was following the whole world from every corner. But I couldn’t see any definite solution or connection for our situation.At that moment, my wife came to me again and asked, “Is there any news?” I said, “There is no news at all, still no one has found a solution for us.” She asked again, “I wish there was a way out, at least for our little daughter...” Right then, I felt a pain in my heart and ran outside. I saw so many doors, all together. The doors were very old; some of them were wooden and partl

Thank you for creating this space.We are Anna and Yuri, stateless siblings born in the former Soviet Union. We moved to Israel in the 1990s, but were never granted citizenship there. We've now been living in Malta for over 22 years under temporary humanitarian protection.Every year, we have to renew our documents just to prove we exist, our residence cards, work permits, even our alien passports that only allow limited travel within the EU. We’ve never had a nationality. We’ve faced rejection, legal invisibility, and countless humiliations, and we’re now finally speaking up and asking for help.It gives us hope to see a community like this. If anyone here has gone through something similar, we would love to connect and exchange experiences. Thank you for making this space feel less lonely. 💛

Liebe Community, ich bin Mascha und Teil des diesjährigen Jahrgangs des Mentoringprogramms der Neuen Deutschen Medienmacher:innen. Da es mir ein großes Anliegen ist staatenlose Menschen zu supporten, palästinensischen Stimmen Gehör zu verleihen und so meine Solidarität (auch als Jüdin) auszudrücken, würde ich sehr gerne einen Artikel schreiben, der all diese Komponenten bündelt. Daher würde ich mich sehr freuen, wenn eine Person, die ebenfalls diese und weitere Eigenschaften hat, sich bei mir meldet und wir uns im Rahmen des eignen Wohlbefindens austauschen könnten. Würde mich sehr freuen. <3

I’m a writer, coach and energy worker and I have about 20 years of language teaching experience. I became stateless because I chose to spend time with my mom instead. During COVID, the school I was teaching at refused to pay me for two days and that was reason enough for me to quit my job. After 6 months of unemployment, interviewing, seeing that not much had changed, also seeing that as a self-employed in Austria, I would not make it thanks to the SVS, I asked my adviser at the AMS to take me off the payments list. Unemployment money stopped and with that, I dropped out of the healthcare system in Austria. I would rather spend my money on freedom, creativity and my own personal version of healthcare that actually supports my body and mind. I don’t support organized crime and that is what the SVS is to me.  For the past 6 years and until May 2025, I took care of my mother who is now safe and sound in her new home. I gave all our furniture, all our stuff away to Caritas and moved out an

Hello to everyone reading this post. Let me tell you a story about myself. I was born in Poland, a beautiful country where people like me aren't given much attention. Like most people in this website, I am stateless. My mother came here over 30 years ago, entering legally for work. She got involved with a man who, to put it mildly, wasn’t the best choice for a father. In short, she didn’t list him as a potential father and instead wrote down her ex-husband. She says she feared potential issues with returning to the country with me. Despite this, they were together. He adopted me. Unfortunately, he passed away before completing all the formalities. He had plenty of time to do it, but as you might guess, alcohol was a problem. They were barely making ends meet, with only my mother working. They were together for over 16 years. In this magical way, I fell into a legislative loop. Today, I am 29 years old and have managed to reach this age without any criminal proceedings. In Poland, there

Dear Statefree-Community, we are four Master's students at the University of Hamburg, majoring in Criminology and Sociology. As part of a research project with the working title: “Experiences of Statelessness Among Palestinians in Germany,” we are investigating the experiences of individuals of Palestinian origin living in Germany regarding statelessness.With our study we hope to contribute to a scientific topic that is still significantly underrepresented in society as well as in academia and, in our opinion, deserves more attention.For our study, we are looking for interview partners who live in Germany and are affected by statelessness due to their Palestinian origin.  Who we are looking forWe are interested in perspectives from people who are officially considered 'stateless' (XXA) as well as from people whose nationality is regarded as 'unresolved' (XXX) by the German authorities.If you are living in Hamburg or Berlin we conduct face-to-face interviews.  If you are living further

 Let me start with a quote, "Human rights should supersede sovereignty in matters fundamental to human existence"The international community has made significant strides in recognizing and protecting human rights. However, the gap between these enshrined principles and their practical implementation remains alarmingly wide. This document seeks to highlight the plight of a particularly vulnerable group: undocumented migrants and their children, whose fundamental rights are often disregarded.    The experience of countless individuals across the globe mirrors a distressing pattern. Many have sought better opportunities in foreign lands, only to find themselves trapped in a cycle of exploitation and uncertainty. The process of regularizing their status is often fraught with bureaucratic hurdles, exorbitant costs, and arbitrary decisions. Failure to navigate this complex system can result in severe consequences, including economic hardship, social ostracism, and separation from loved ones.

Dear Readers of the Statefree Community,My name is Ronja Pröllochs, I am studying Social Work and Language, History and Cultures of the Middle East and I am currently writing / working on my bachelor thesis on the topic of statelessness, since I worked to citizenship before and then stumbled upon this as I would say human rights problem. Since I would ideally be working on filmography, I wanted to ask if there are people without citizenship in the community who could imagine being interviewed and (potentially) filmed, if not though that would also be more than okay. I would be happy to hear from you either way. In the interviews, I would like to ask questions about the circumstances and feelings of people who are de facto or de jure stateless in order to create empathy and a greater awareness of the issue.I will be happy to answer any further questions you may have.I would be delighted to hear from youYours sincerelyRonja Pröllochs

Please could you guide me to any international platform where my voice may be heard? Is the international court of justice a good choice? But then I do not have financial resources to file a case at the international court of justice. I am working at a NGO, non-profit for the persons with the mental health issues. I myself am a person with the lived experience of the mental health issues. I have non-affective psychosis.I am Nepalese but I have no  legal documentary proof thereof as I was separated from my biological family when I was about 5 years of age and I do not remember them at all. if I was in touch with them I could have had a connecting link to Nepal through my mother/father . My plea is though I do not have any proof of my connection to Nepal, I am a human being and I am alive I mean I exist -so somewhere somebody would be a duty bearer to register me and my presence!!!!I mean how can I stay stateless? and for how long???right now I am about 40 years of age and all these 40 y

As a Stateless person I feel like there is nothing I can't do Because Everyone who I approach they just Turn around and leave I feel that my life is getting hard and It's like I have no voice in me Because everyone Always Giving me a hard time Just because they know I am a Stateless person Like they can say anything to me There are sometimes that My throat feels so heavy I feel like I just want to Burst out and A man tier has no Value It's like I feel like I am cockroach   Not a human