STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY passed away, but purely descent-based laws mean that their children born in the new country cannot acquire nationality there—in the only country they have ever known. Even though in principle the children of most migrants should have entitlement to the nationality of one or both of their parents, this will depend on proof of the facts and on the attitude, effectiveness and accessibility of the consular authorities of the country from which the migrants came. While most countries do not restrict transmission of nationality in principle to children born abroad, there may be requirements to register a birth with the consular authorities. Moreover, it is likely that parents with an irregular migration status, not wishing to draw attention to themselves or because of the costs involved, do not register the birth of their children with the authorities either of the country where they are resident or with the consular authorities of their countries of origin. This is especially the case where the parents both lack documents and are unable or unwilling for good reason to approach the consular authorities of their own countries; for example, because they are refugees but never formally registered as such. Stranded migrants in transit The East African region is a zone of transit as well as of refugee flows and other in-migration. In particular, many travel through the region from the Horn of Africa en route to South Africa. They avoid the authorities as best they can, but many do not succeed. For example, up to 500 Ethiopian migrants are reportedly arrested in Kenya every month, but there is no working mechanism to repatriate them to Ethiopia, so they spend protracted periods in detention.157 Hundreds, possibly thousands, of others also find themselves held in detention in other countries of the region, until the resources are found to repatriate them or they can bribe their way out. In other regions of the world, research into immigration detention has found many cases of stateless persons who have spent months incarcerated simply because they cannot prove their nationality or regularise their immigration status and there is no country to which they can be deported.158 Although there is no detailed research, the situation appears to be the same in East Africa, where, if the authorities cannot determine a country of origin “you are forgotten”.159 Deportees from countries outside the region Another category of migrant at great risk of statelessness is made up of those expelled from one country where they have been in irregular status, to another where they also do not hold or cannot establish citizenship. For example, during Tanzania’s 2013 Operation Kimbunga to expel irregular migrants, some of those expelled by Tanzania were not accepted as citizens by the country to which they were expelled (see box p. 62). There has been significant concern over the relationship between the EU and African countries around management of migration, as integrated into EU-African cooperation frameworks, especially the procedures for re-admission of African migrants deported from European countries.160 African opposition to an EU proposal for the deportation of Africans from EU countries on the basis of EU-issued temporary travel 157 Mixed Migration in Kenya: The scale of movement and associated protection risks, Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (RMMS), June 2013. 158 Unravelling Anomaly: Detention, Discrimination and the Protection Needs of Stateless Persons, London: Equal Rights Trust, 2010. 159 Ty McCormick, “In Pursuit of the African Dream”, Foreign Policy, 19 August 2016. 160 The signatory states to the EU-Africa Cotonou Agreement agreed to cooperate on irregular migration and readmission of nationals as well as to consider strategies for the “economic and social development of the regions from which migrants originate”. Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States of the other part, “The Cotonou Agreement”, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000, revised in Luxembourg on 25 June 2005, revised in Ouagadougou on 22 June 2010, Article 13. UNHCR / September 2018 43