ADELA SLIVA
stateless person / de iure
Date of birth: 26 May 1951
Place of birth: Maribor, Slovenia
Address: Rijeka, Croatia
Case summary:
Adela Sliva was born on May 26, 1951, in Maribor, Republic of Slovenia, from (father Mihajlo and) mother Marija. The client was only born in Slovenia, as they left Slovenia when the client was a few months old.
According to the client, the father was Hungarian, but he was not even registered in the birth certificate. The mother was born in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia, but the client did not know if she was and whose citizen she was. The parents both died around 1967. The parents worked in the circus, so they traveled all over firmer Yugoslavia. Most often, they linked their stay to Novska in Croatia. The client also worked in the circus.
The client got married in 1971 in Zagreb to a citizen of the Republic of Croatia and has three children, all citizens of the Republic of Croatia. During 1976 they divorced; and she had had no contact with him and the children for the past few years. In 1976 she went to Rijeka where she started an extramarital relationship with a citizen of the Republic of Croatia and they have five (5) children, all citizens of the Republic of Croatia.
The client was lastly living in Rijeka, with her son B.P. in a rented apartment.
During 2014, the client, for the first time, regulated her stay in the Republic of Croatia, reunification with a family member – family relationship with her son B. P., a Croatian citizen, with whom she still lived and who suppored her. The request in question was approved for five years, and then, on the same basis, temporary residence was approved for one year from August 22, 2019, to August 22, 2020.
The client should have submitted the request for extension of temporary stay no later than 60 days before the expiration of the valid temporary stay, however, she was not aware of this and submitted the request on 28 December 2020. By decision of the Police Department (PD) Primorje-Gorski Kotar from April 26, 2021, the request was rejected, which was appealed through the representative in the capacity of a lawyer. The Appeals Committee annulled the Decision of the PD and sent the case back for retrial.
In the retrial, it was necessary for the client, through its representative, lawyer B.B., to submit through the nearest Embassy requests for verification of her citizenship in Hungary, Slovenia and Serbia and to determine whether the same citizen is a citizen of one of the aforementioned countries – the purpose is to regulate temporary stay in the Republic of Croatia.
We emphasize that the administrative procedure for determining citizenship has not been initiated in the aforementioned countries through the Consulate; the lawyer has already requested information on whether Ms. Adela Sliva is registered in the register of citizens of Slovenia, Serbia and Hungary.
A reply was received from the Republic of Slovenia that the client was not registered in the book of citizens of the Republic of Slovenia.
The verification of the citizenship status of the Republic of Serbia at the Consulate in Rijeka, i.e. the submission of the application, was prolonged due to the fact that the client did not have the financial means to pay the consular fee in the amount of 56 euros. CRP Sisak tried on several occasions to get in touch with the client, but without success, and during a visit to the territory of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in May 2023, we personally took the amount to the client in the name of the consular fee and provided legal assistance in filling out the application for verification of the citizenship status of the Republic of Serbia.
The request was submitted on July 28, 2023, through the client representative, lawyer B.B. The answer of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia to the Consulate in Rijeka was delivered during August 2023 – the client is not registered in the books of citizens of the Republic of Serbia.
Regarding the verification of the citizenship status of the Republic of Hungary, it was necessary to submit as much information as possible about the relatives of the direct line of the client, that is, the name and surname at birth, the place and time of birth of the father and mother, the place and time of the marriage of the parents and the aforementioned information for the parents as well her father and mother so that they could even check the citizenship in the system.
By personal contact – by visiting the client, on May 25, 2023, we obtained the necessary information above, and forwarded it to the lawyer, who then sent it to the Consulate of the Republic of Hungary in the Republic of Croatia by email on July 28.
PD Primorje-Gorski Kotar has extended the deadline for submitting proof of submitted requests for verification of citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia, Serbia and Hungary – purpose of regulating temporary stay in the Republic of Croatia, and proof of health insurance.
We emphasized that the client was elderly, 71 years old and did not have health insurance. She had been sick and hospitalized several times, and the son paid for treatments.
The competent decision-making body of the PD Primorje-Gorski Kotar, keep evidence of Ms. Sliva as on a stateless person. It is very important to point out the following: when regulating the temporary stay of the client, the competent authority will take into account the continuity of the previous stay /will not take into account a break of 4 months/, and the possibility of regulating health insurance is possible through travel health insurance.
This case was one of priority cases of CRP Sisak when talking about statelessness. The plan was that after the temporary residence is regulated, the stateless client would fulfill conditions for issuance of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons passport for stateless persons in accordance with the Article 9 para 1 of the Foreigners Act.
However, sadly, on 23 July 2024, the client died of cancer. She did not even have a proper document with her photo. Therefore, the family, her sons, had problems with the identification of the mother for funeral reasons. CRP advised on going to the Ministry of the Interior, Police Department to ask for certificate on residence.
In conclusion, the statelessness related procedures are not defined, and they last far too long, so stateless population cannot live long enough to reach solutions and ID and personal documents, especially if we take into account the fact that they live very hard lives, being invisible and without right to health insurance, education, marriage, work, pension, income, etc.
In Sisak, October 2024
Milana Kreca,
CRP Sisak, President
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