CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Like in Tripoli, the main factor leading to statelessness in Akkar is the nonregistration of births (albeit to a lesser extent, and with a stronger minority of historical cases), disadvantaging children and adults alike, who end up deprived of their fundamental rights. • Creating solutions that could end this issue in Lebanon once and for all is not an impossible task. This study identified 4,088 stateless individuals in Akkar - nearly double the number of those living in Tripoli, according to our 2019 study (2,200 persons). This supports earlier estimations that the total size of the stateless population in Lebanon stands at around 27,000 individuals. • In Akkar, a significant majority of the stateless population come from the Sunni community, with nearly half located in Wadi Khaled. Seventy one percent come from ethnic minority groups such as the Bedouin and Dom, which account for a large proportion of the inherited cases of statelessness in the region. The stateless population in Akkar is hit hard by unemployment, and a very large percentage of the population receive little to no education. • Most stateless people surveyed in this study show great attachment to the Lebanese identity, downplaying other primordial ties, such as sectarian and geographical identifiers. However, family and tribal connections remain significant, but not prominent. Unlike the surveyed Lebanese, stateless respondents are less inclined to emigrate. But a quarter of those who are inclined to emigrate are ready to do so through irregular means. • Surveyed stateless persons pointed to the shared responsibility of both the state and the parents in the perpetuation of their condition, clearly criticizing political institutions. Unlike in Tripoli, stateless people’s relationship with the army and security services is not an issue in Akkar, and these institutions generally enjoy high levels of public trust, with stateless respondents reporting minimal incidents at checkpoints or arrests. Given the context of sectarian and political polarization in Tripoli, stateless persons there have a higher fear of checkpoints and are subject to much less mobility that in Akkar. • Yet, this does not change the fact that stateless persons in Akkar suffer a great deal emotionally and psychologically because of their situation. They are stigmatized socially, in addition to being trapped in an inextricable and expensive maze of legal proceedings to claim citizenship. © 2021 Siren Associates. All Rights Reserved.