The curse of statelessness follows us wherever we go

Hussein Ma’ami was born in al-Hasakeh in 1984. As a result of the special census carried out by the Syrian government in 1962, his family was divided, some becoming ajanib,^[2] and others remaining citizens. His father being an ajnabi, and his mother a citizen of Syrian nationality, he ended up classified as maktum. Regarding this, Hussein spoke to STJ in March 2018 saying:

"Honestly, we didn’t try our best to resolve our legal status because others did, to no avail. Because of my status of maktum, I dropped out of school in the eighth grade. After several years, I tried to apply for the ninth grade exams, but was rejected for being a maktum. As a child, I used to practice karate, but I was not allowed to participate in tournaments because of being a maktum as well. In 2010 I went to Lebanon through smuggling routes and was forced to pay SP10000 because I did not enjoy Syrian citizenship, while citizens only had to pay SP500 at the time to enter Lebanon regularly."

In 2010, and while Hussein was in Lebanon, his family submitted their papers in order to resolve their legal status, and managed to become ajanib. In 2011, Hussein decided to return to al-Hasakah, hoping to resolve his legal status, but he couldn’t:

"When I returned to Al Hasakah, my family had obtained the Syrian nationality but I was still maktum. I was overcome with despair, so I decided to take smuggling routes to Iraqi Kurdistan, from where I later went to Germany. When I arrived there, I submitted an application for residency. It took me a long time of waiting and three visits to the court to get a residence permit valid for only one year, while it took the Syrian citizen only 3 or 4 months to get it with a 3 years validity.”