© Chris Meisch / RTL
Kristina Davydenko was born and raised in Luxembourg, but she has not had a passport for twenty years.
From the beginning of her life she has been living here without official documentation and thus with no passport nor residence permit. How can something like this even happen in the Grand Duchy? How is it possible, that a young woman is unable to receive a Luxembourgish identity card if she appears to fulfil all the conditions, but she is still turned down with nothing?
“I don’t own a passport nor an identity card, I only have a student card!”
For twenty years this has gone on, although Kristina and her mother are legal Ukrainian citizens. Ukrainian citizenship is what they still need to prove to the authorities in Ukraine.
For years Kristina has been trying to adopt the Luxembourgish nationality, because she has the right to do so according to Luxembourgish legal regulations… if her parents hadn’t come into the country with false identities.
When the press started to show interest, the procedures were accelerated: Kristina received a year-long “foreigner’s pass” from the immigration office for the time being. The pass enables her to travel, get a residence permit, and enough time to organise a Ukrainian passport, say Luxembourgish authorities. Without the latter, she can’t obtain a Luxembourgish passport either.
“Hopefully I am one of the only kids in this situation”
No chance for receiving the cool things as a teenager: no travelling after secondary school graduation, no driver’s license… as soon as an ID is needed, she’s out. The exception is made for student jobs, if one can consider that “cool”. We get to know the young woman through her boss, Nathalie Schweich, whose café in the city she has worked in for two years. She would do anything for her student, and she knows that Kristina is constantly trying to live in Luxembourg in a legal manner.
A gene test in 2017
Kristina is a Luxembourger in body and soul, a good deal more than herself, thinks Chiara Huss, who has been Kristina’s friend for ten years. Chiara knows that Kristina has sent her paperwork in numerous times already - without any results.
A child that is born here is not automatically Luxembourgish. The fact that she lives here, successfully goes to school here, speaks perfect Luxembourgish, physically exists yet not on paper… yes, that is possible even here, confirms Maître Frank Wies, the expert for human rights. He has taken over Kristina Davydenko’s case again.
Kristina Davydenko had to confirm, via gene test, that she is actually her mother’s daughter. Her mother’s nationality is clear, yet there still seems to be missing documents.
A solution in sight?!
Kristina still hasn’t lost hope and she tries to contact the Ukrainian authorities again, with her new foreigner’s pass and residence allowance. With the help of her lawyer, who was the head of Amnesty International in Luxembourg until 2013, and a member of the “Commission Consultative des Droits de l’Homme” to this day, she keeps on trying.
After twenty years she longs to go on holiday, and for a residence permit in Lintgen… that means going through all the stops to persuade the Ukrainian authorities of her Ukrainian nationality. With a passport and the Luxembourgish nationality, there should be no further obstacles.
Watch the full Luxembourgish documentary here:
