“Statelessness is transmitted by birth in our family”

Hasan Ibrahim was born in the city of Qamishli,  Al Hasakah governorate, in 1950, and is married with eight children. He is a stateless Syrian Kurd, from the maktumeen^[1] class. His legal status adversely affected his entire life and deprived him of all his basic rights, as he told STJ field researcher who interviewed him in March 2018:

"My father was a maktum, and this status was transmitted to me, as well as to my sons and grandsons by birth. Despite poverty and working as a porter, I used to buy each of my sons three pairs of shoes: one for sport, another for school and the third for home. I aimed at encouraging them to study, as they always hear from people: “Why do you study since you are maktum?” That made my eldest son drop out of school. I tried once to persuade him to complete his education saying that no one knows what could happen in the future, that our legal status might resolve and we might become citizens. But he did not listen to my advice, and since then he has been working different jobs, including as a porter, watering agricultural land, or in the block industry."

Following the issuance of Decree No. 49, on naturalization of ajanib^[2] in 2011, Hasan submitted his and his sons' papers to the Civil Status Department in al-Hasakah. He used to go there about four times a month in order to follow up on this issue:

"Considering that my wife is a citizen, I attached her documents with mine and sued for the registration of our marriage. As a result, they gave me a family book and a receipt for the ID, that I was asked to thumbprint twice, but I haven’t received the ID yet. The same thing happened with my daughters, but my young sons did not thumbprint, fearing to be conscripted into the Syrian army. My grandchildren are all maktumeen as a result. In short, we have, and still do, suffer lot."