38. Furthermore, anti-trafficking responses are often status-dependent: access to victim identification procedures, residence permits, shelters, compensation, and long-term solutions frequently hinges on nationality or migration status. Stateless children may be misidentified as “irregular migrants” rather than victims, leading to detention, deportation, or return to unsafe environments. The absence of a country of nationality complicates family tracing, safe return, or reintegration, while also obstructing access to justice, as children may lack legal standing, documentation, or a state willing to assert consular protection on their behalf. 39. In South Africa, for example, although the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act 7 of 2013 is formally inclusive, it does not explicitly recognise statelessness or stateless persons. As a result, trafficking victims without nationality are frequently categorised as “illegal foreigners” and processed under the immigration law, rather than receiving victim-centred protection that addresses statelessness as a structural vulnerability and protection concern. 19 Effective antitrafficking responses must therefore incorporate statelessness as a structural vulnerability, ensuring that all children, regardless of nationality, can access victim-centred protection and durable solutions. 40. Trafficking prevention activities have also often focused on risk-awareness and community-level initiatives that challenge social norms relating to, for example, dowry systems, early marriage and gender-based violence. These initiatives only address part of the problem. The socio-economic conditions for families and children that result from deprivation of citizenship and experiences of displacement and dispossession drive onwards migration, and desperation drives risk. Holistic measures that address a lack of legal status, exclusion from economic activities, poverty, inequality, and depletion of rights are a vital missing component in anti-trafficking initiatives for stateless people and refugees, including children.20 iv. Access to protection, justice and effective remedies 41. Stateless children who are victims of trafficking face significant barriers to protection and justice, including lack of legal standing, fear of detention or removal, and exclusion from national referral mechanisms. In mixed migration contexts, the absence of legal status not only deters children from seeking assistance; it effectively silences them. Fear of arrest, detention, or deportation prevents reporting of abuse, allowing traffickers to operate with near-total impunity. 42. Moreover, procedural safeguards to ensure children can effectively access justice are frequently absent or wholly inadequate to address child rights violations. Access to remedies is routinely blocked by rigid time limits and narrow interpretations of when a claim can be filed. These rules ignore the child’s dependency on adults and their limited ability to pursue legal action. Consequently, violations involving identity, nationality, and family relations often go unchallenged for years, or even across generations. Adults attempting to seek redress for harms suffered in childhood repeatedly face insurmountable barriers that deny recognition of their suffering and exclude them from justice.21 19 South Africa, Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act 7 of 2013. 20 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘Joint submission to the special rapporteur on trafficking in persons and international protection of refugees, stateless persons and internally displaced persons (IDPs)’, 2023, available at: https://files.institutesi.org/Submission_SP_Trafficking.pdf. 21 Identity Rights Working Group, ‘Submission for input to the draft CRC Committee’s General Comment 27 on access to justice and effective remedies’, 2025, available at: https://files.institutesi.org/ID%20WG_Submission_on_draft_GC_27.pdf. 11