Our beneficiary Maksym has been living in Slovyansk since 1986. He has never received a passport of a citizen of Ukraine. Maksym is disabled, has lost his eyesight and moves in a wheelchair.
In 2016, he tried to obtain the document on his own. The State Migration Service of Ukraine (SMSU) managed to establish the identity of the man, but not the citizenship. Two years later, Maksym once again applied to the service to obtain a passport, but also with no luck.
He realized that he required professional legal aid in order to obtain the document. Maksym turned to the office of the Right to Protection CF in Slovyansk. Our Fund’s lawyer helped Maksym recover his lost birth certificate. After that, we applied to the court to establish the fact of Maksym’s permanent residence with his parents in Ukraine as of November 13, 1991.
We even had to search for a witness in order to confirm this fact. Fortunately, a neighbor who had known the man since childhood agreed to come to the court to help.
With a court decision in his favor, Maksym appealed to the territorial department of the SMSU and finally received a certificate of registration as a citizen of Ukraine, and later, in December 2020 – a passport.
“When I received my passport, I immediately signed a declaration with my family doctor and underwent eye surgery. Previously, without documents, I could not receive even basic medical help… “
– Maksym commented after finally receiving his first passport in life.
UNHCR Ukraine – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine
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