Gerard van Leeuwen

Stateless Gerard van Leeuwen

The moving story of a stateless man living life without an identity.

A biography about the implications of having no passport, no nationality and no rights, and belonging nowhere.

Some 10 million people around the world are stateless. With no birth certificate, Kamal Kojadin was in that very position, having fled Croatia with his parents in May 1945. The family managed to build a new life, but time and again they were forced to flee. After the death of his parents Kamal returned to Yugoslavia, and it was only then that he really started to feel the effects of living without official papers, as he found he was unable to open a bank account, buy a house, and marry. After the love of his life died, their children were taken away from him. Kamal felt like a prisoner in his home country, and ended up begging on the streets of Sarajevo.

Stateless - One Man's Struggle for an Identity is a moving story of the fate of an ordinary man who, for lack of a nationality, was forced to lead an extraordinary life.