Skopje man listed as dead for 25 years despite being alive, institutions shift the blame to one another

Afet from Skopje has officially been listed as dead for 25 years, even though he is alive and has spent years unsuccessfully battling institutions to prove that he is living, despite the state having long since erased him.

After failing to find a solution to this institutional deadlock, he turned to the Ombudsman for help.

In the Ombudsman’s report, cited by “Fokus”, it states: “Acting within its constitutional and legal powers to protect citizens’ rights, the Ombudsman proceeded on a complaint submitted on 24.01.2023 by a citizen from Skopje, who had conducted proceedings before several authorities for more than seven years in order to be removed from the death register, where he had been mistakenly recorded following the death of his twin brother abroad, due to the switching of personal documents.”

The mix-up began in 2001, when Afet’s twin brother went to the Czech Republic and, without his knowledge, took Afet’s passport. Shortly afterward, he died abroad and, based on the passport, the institutions recorded that Afet had died.

Although he has proven through his fingerprint that he is Afet, the institutions continue to pass responsibility for correcting this error to one another. The Civil Court and the Civil Registration Office are shifting jurisdiction for resolving the case back and forth.

The citizen submitted a request to the Skopje Basic Civil Court to be declared alive, but the court issued a decision declaring itself not competent, arguing that such a procedure is not provided for under the applicable legal regulations. After this decision became final, the citizen was instructed to pursue the matter before the Civil Registration Office.

On the other hand, the Administration referred the citizen back to court procedures, stressing that only the court has the authority to issue a decision declaring a person alive, after which the Administration can remove the entry from the register of the dead. Because of this mutual passing of jurisdiction, without any substantive action on the request, the Ombudsman assessed that the fundamental right to life is being violated, since the citizen who is officially listed as dead is prevented from exercising even the most basic rights./Telegrafi/