As a stateless Syrian Kurds from the maktumeen class, Nasr El Din was not allowed to possess or acquire any property. He has been deprived of all his civil and political rights, and all his attempts to resolve his legal status were to no avail.
Nasr El Din Ardam Ibrahim was born in Ras al-Ayn/Sari Kani in Al Hasakah Governorate in 1956. He is now married with children. The majority of Nasr El Din’s family members are stateless, specifically maktumeen, including his father, wife and children. He talked to STJ field researcher in March 2018:
"When the census was conducted in Kari Mir and Sharshak in Ras al-Ayn/Sari Kani, our names were not registered, so we submitted our papers to the Personal Status Department, in al-Hasakah city, several times trying to resolve our status, but in vain. We also had tried illegal ways when, 25 years ago, we paid bribes to the employees at the Ras al-Ayn/Sari Kani Personal Status Department, including one named A.B. who promised to help us in resolving our legal status but did nothing. Employees there were always telling us that our documents/papers were sent to Damascus but they weren’t sent back. I managed to buy a house in Ras al-Ayn/Sari Kani and since my legal status was not changed, I applied to register it in the name of my cousin, but my application was denied by the Political Security Branch. I went there to ask them about the reason, I was not afraid as they wouldn’t kill me after all. I talked to an official there and explained my legal status to him. After inquiring about my file, he told me that they would follow up the matter but I had to resubmit my papers to the municipality first, without mentioning my previous attempt. But nothing came of it.”
Nasr El Din managed to buy an agricultural machinery, but he was not allowed to register it in his name. One day, a dispute arose between him and a coworker, and the latter said to him:
"What are you doing right here, you’re just a maktum and have nothing, get out!”
About further difficulties he has faced, Nasr El Din said:
"I was always traveling to cities like Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus and I had to show my identity certificate with the permission from the hotel division to the checkpoints agents on the road. One day while I was in Aleppo, and after I received the permission from the hotel division, the employee said to me: “won’t you pay me for a dinner?” I replied “How can I pay you while I’m looking for a free meal.”
Nasr El Din was only permitted to practice carpentry and to work as a seller in a motorcycle shop, he also used to face several obstacles while enrolling his children in school, as they always had to present their identity certificates and sometimes a permission from the Political Security Branch:
“On 4 May 2012, I submitted my papers with those of my mother and 3 brothers to the Personal Status Department in al-Hasakah again. The employees there told me that they’d send them to Damascus and that I had to wait until they were sent back. While I was in the Department I ran into a person who gave me the phone number of an employee working there who could help me resolving my status, as he said. Indeed I contacted him and asked him about me and my mother’s and brothers’ documents. He told me that one of the them was sent to the Political Security Branch in Damascus, and was not sent back, while the other documents were sent back to al-Hasakah to be completed. It was just like a repeated cycle, and my attempts were to no avail. I contacted an employee working at Damascus’ Personal Status Department trying to bribe him in order to help me resolve my legal status, but he told me that I have to resubmit my papers."