Liberians at this stage is only a very distant possibility, with the crises in their countries overtaken by new wars in the Central African Republic, Mali, South Sudan or elsewhere. Altogether perhaps a number in the low thousands of former Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees remain in Guinea with no legal status.210 They have neither Guinean documents, nor any documents for their home country, nor any continuing refugee status. Their lack of valid documentation means they have no access to health care and their children are not in school. While their children born in Guinea would, in principle, acquire Guinean nationality automatically at majority, recognition of that right may depend on their being registered at birth. Some refugees interviewed for this report had registered their children’s birth in Guinea; but others were reluctant because of the implied acceptance of their children’s Guinean nationality, or thought they would be rejected given that they had no documentation themselves as parents; or complained at high (informal) charges for registration for children with foreign parents. At the same time, if they “return” to Sierra Leone or Liberia many would struggle to be recognised as nationals, as the “red-coding” of Liberians indicates. Guinea has no process to provide a status to stateless persons. Generally, naturalisation procedures are often not effectively open to refugees, even where there are no formal legal impediments to an application (see above, section 3.3). Some Rwandans who have completed the required residence period (according to the nationality law applicable) had already sought naturalisation in their countries of refuge even before the cessation clause was invoked. But this process has not been completed by many: both because refugees have not put themselves forward, and also because of difficulties with the process. In Niger, a group of Rwandan refugees had submitted naturalisation requests every year for several years at the time of research for this report: but an application lapses and must be resubmitted if no reply has been received within a year, and they had not yet been able to obtain Nigerien nationality.211 In Senegal, of the more than 200 Rwandans with recognised refugee status, only thirteen responded to radio appeals and other outreach to register their intentions, among whom all requested naturalisation – a process that was still underway as of May 2014. Other Rwandans who had never obtained refugee status in Senegal, were in principle not eligible for this process; UNHCR’s Senegal office had requested that the Senegalese authorities open the same offer to them, if they could prove ten years’ residence in Senegal.212 Refugees and former refugees face major difficulties in integrating into the society where they find themselves, including in the urban contexts where most Rwandans are found. Among the biggest challenges are those of documentation and proof of identity; including birth certificates as well as proof of nationality. For example, whereas the Senegalese authorities had issued instructions to schools to accept children of “returnees” from the Central African Republic crisis without the birth certificate usually required for entry into secondary school, the children of (former) Rwandan refugees have had greater difficulty. Under the Senegalese (and other civil law systems) a recent copy of a birth certificates is required to enter the exam to pass from primary to secondary school, and for other 210 According to UNHCR and CNISR unofficial estimates – but no audit has been done to determine the numbers. Interviews, Ministry of Justice, Niamey, May 2014. 212 Interview with representative of the Rwandan community in Senegal, Dakar, May 2014. It was not clear why so few Rwandans had come forward for the naturalisation process, though among them a handful were not eligible, since they had obtained refugee status in another country – including the Central African Republic – and had then travelled on to Senegal and remained there without papers. 211 64