CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y process, or if births are not registered by the authorities of the country of birth. Those at risk of statelessness in the Horn of Africa include both refugees hosted by the region (whether from other countries included in this study, or other neighbouring states, or further afield); and refugees from the region in neighbouring countries, of which the largest groups are in Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda. Some populations have been displaced back and forward across borders many times. The great majority of refugees in Africa cannot obtain the nationality of the country where they have now established their lives and families; naturalisations of refugees and former refugees are very rare in the region, even if the law permits naturalisation on the same or similar terms as other foreigners. Among the exceptions are several hundred Somalis of Bantu origin (the Zigua) who fled to Tanzania (their ancestral home) after the collapse of the Somali state and to whom there was an outreach programme; but not even all the Bantu Somalis resident in Tanzania accessed this process, which is now closed.?°° So long as a person is recognised as a refugee, and able to access services and exercise rights using a refugee registration document, it may not be urgent to resolve nationality status. However, the question of nationality becomes urgent if refugee status is ceased or revoked. Although a refugee document issued by another country showing a person’s country of origin is usually accepted as the basis for a person to re-establish nationality in the country of origin if and when circumstances” clause of the UN return is possible, or the “ceased Refugee Convention is invoked, this is not always the case.?3! There are also many refugees who have never enjoyed formal recognition of nationality in the state of previous residence. They, and especially their children born in a different country, are at great risk of statelessness. Among those in this group are, for example, people of mixed Eritrean-Ethiopian heritage, who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries without formally being registered as refugees (see also below, Ethiopians of Eritrean descent). The children of long-term refugees born in exile are at particular risk of statelessness, even if births are registered. In Ethiopia, for example, a birth certificate records the nationality of the child.2°* In the case of children of parents of mixed nationality or of refugees or other foreigners, the parents declare what nationality should be recorded for the child, without reference to the relevant nationality law(s). If the parents blank.235_ cannot agree (because they are of different nationalities), the nationality field may be left In the case of children of one refugee parent and one parent who is a national, however, the civil status 230 Bronwen Manby, officer has authority to record Ethiopian nationality. Refugee registration often brings ‘Citizenship and Statelessness in the East African Community’ (Geneva: UNHCR, November 2018), p.66, https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/66807, Bronwen Manby, ‘Citizenship and Statelessness in the Member States of the Southern African Development Community’ (Geneva: UNHCR, 2020), pp.77-78 https://www.refworld.org/docid/6012a0d44.html. 231 in West Africa, when the “ceased circumstances” clause was invoked in relation to Sierra Leone and Liberia, UNHCR signed tripartite agreements with the countries of asylum and origin for the voluntary repatriation of the refugees. More than one thousand former Liberian refugees registered with UNHCR were not accepted as Liberian nationals during vetting processes by the Liberian authorities conducted as part of this process. See discussion in Bronwen Manby, ‘Migration, Nationality and Statelessness in West Africa’ (Geneva: UNHCR and IOM, 2015), https://www.unhcr.org/ecowas2015/Nationality-Migration-andStatelessness-in-West-Africa-REPORT-EN. pdf. 232 Section 24 of Proclamation No. 760/2012 provides rather for the nationality of the parents to be recorded; however the previous practice appears to be continued, where the nationality of the child is recorded. See also Birth Registration: A Comparative Report, DLA Piper / UNICEF, May 2016, available at http://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/birth-registration-a-comparative-report-prepared-for-unicef-2/. 233 interview, statelessness focal point, INVEA, 8 February 2021. 54 UNHCR — December 2021