Nihada Gegic from Sarajevo is originally from Kosovo and has been living in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) since the age of three without documents or health insurance.
The authorities do not recognize documents from the Republic of Kosovo, and residents of that country need a visa to enter BiH. BiH, along with Serbia, is the only country in the region that has not recognized the independence of Kosovo, proclaimed in 2008.
“I only have a Kosovo birth certificate, but it is not recognized.It’s terrible to live like that. I feel like someone dropped me into this world, like I’m invisible,” she told.
Nihada finished elementary school, but she failed to enroll in Secondary School of Agriculture, Food processing, Veterinary medicine and Service industries (hairdressing department) due to a lack of documentation. She does not have a permanent job, and survives thanks to the earnings from occasional cleaning of apartments and houses.
According to UNHCR data, there are 28 stateless persons in BiH, persons who are invisible to the system and, due to various life circumstances, live without citizenship and documents.
48-year-old Mustafa Zogaj from Doboj is among them, who lives in BiH without any personal documents.
He is “invisible” for the BiH system, even though he has lived in BiH for 40 years. He has no unique identity number, personal and health card, and can only dream about traveling.
“The hardest thing for me is when the police stop me and ask if I have any document with a picture. I say that I don’t have it, and then I have to explain, and there were even arrests,” he explained.
Mustafa moved to BiH with his father in 1982, at the time of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), when Kosovo was an autonomous province within Serbia. Today, he lives in an extramarital union and has two children who do not have his last name, because he could not get married.
In addition to giving birth outside hospitals, the main causes of statelessness in BiH are displacement and wars, as well as destroyed registry books, which left people without the evidence needed to obtain documents in BiH.
Advancement in legislation
Laws on civil proceedings at the level of two entities in BiH allow persons who do not have evidence, such as a birth certificate, to have their date and place of birth determined through the courts.
It is a step that precedes registration in the registry books, and then obtaining other documents, Radio Slobodna Evropa writes.
E.Dz.
