Nansen Passports

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Gorque
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Nansen Passports

#1

Post by Gorque » 07 Apr 2019, 11:52

I just read an article regarding Vladimir Nabokov regarding his constant uprooting and his holding of a Nansen Passport. Per the article, Nabokov opined that the holder of such was regarded as a "criminal on parole" by the authorities.

How much of a hindrance to international travel and visa procurement was it to have one? Per the article, Nabokov wasn't able to attend his mother's funeral in Czechoslovakia because of it.

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Terry Duncan
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Re: Nansen Passports

#2

Post by Terry Duncan » 07 Apr 2019, 12:52

I think a lot varied on the individual and the nation they were trying to enter at the time. People like Anna Pavlova had Nansen passports at times and travelled fairly freely, but it is possible that others who may have been thought to be undesirable may have been obstructed by different states?


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Waleed Y. Majeed
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Re: Nansen Passports

#3

Post by Waleed Y. Majeed » 07 Apr 2019, 13:20

Maybe this official source has some answers
https://www.unhcr.org/events/nansen/4aa ... ision.html

Waleed

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Gorque
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Re: Nansen Passports

#4

Post by Gorque » 07 Apr 2019, 14:43

Thanks for the quick replies Terry and Waleed. :thumbsup:

I wrote the OP on my tablet and still haven't figured out how to copy and paste on the tablet.

Here is an excerpt from the article I had mentioned:
Officially the couple were stateless, having been issued Nansen passports, a document that in Nabokov’s view essentially identified its holder as “a criminal on parole.” Those documents turned travel into a herculean labor; whole correspondences would be devoted to the procurement of visas. Nabokov missed his mother’s funeral, in Prague, for want of one. The authorities seemed to view the foreigners among them, he noted, “with the preposterous disapproval with which certain religious groups regard a child born out of wedlock.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/opin ... fugee.html

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Gorque
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Re: Nansen Passports

#5

Post by Gorque » 07 Apr 2019, 14:51

I thought I add a few links on the above from the World Digital Library.

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/11576/

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/11575/

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