Eight-year-old twin brothers lie on an old mattress in a dilapidated house in the Vrela Ribnička neighborhood of Podgorica, and swarms of flies fly around them. They don't speak, they don't move, they don't smile. They cannot complain of pain. Cerebral palsy, from which they both suffer, was not treated in time. Their lives are now seriously threatened.
They do not receive help from the state, because they are stateless - they do not have citizenship or personal documents, even though they were born in Montenegro. Their father Bidaim came from Kosovo 24 years ago. The majority of stateless persons in Montenegro are members of the Roma and Egyptian communities. They suffer multiple discrimination, they do not have the possibility of health and social insurance, the right to disability benefits, to employment...
Bidaim failed to get documents in Montenegro, because he was not registered in Kosovo either and he came here without documents. "When I was born, my father didn't register me, he gave himself up to alcohol and didn't care about me. It marked me and my family for the rest of my life, because statelessness is hereditary. Now I don't know how to get the documents and help my children", he says for the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG).
The twin who is several minutes older makes less progress. He eats only mushy food and is in great pain. He doesn't even communicate with his eyes in a stuffy room. Bidaim's second wife Daniela takes care of them day and night. The biological mother abandoned the twins soon after birth.
