Birth Registration and Consular Assistance in Egypt and Morocco 17 Late registration is only permitted with approval from Khartoum.56 The civil registration laws of Ethiopia and Nigeria provide in general for consulates to function as civil registration offices.57 South Sudan adopted a new law on civil registration only in late 2018, with no provision relating to births outside the country.58 The laws in these countries do not explicitly require consular registration for transmission of nationality, nor proof of birth registration in the host country before a birth can be registered by the parents with the consular authorities. Eritrea creates a very specific set of difficulties for its nationals living abroad, who are expected to pay a two percent tax on their income, and must submit this in order to obtain consular assistance, in addition to any other fees payable.59 Those who have not fulfilled the onerous military service obligations applicable in Eritrea have to complete a special form. Applicants who lack the required documentation will need close family members to attest to their identity, and, if possible, submit copies of their parents’ national ID cards.60 The situation of migrants and refugees I know a girl from South Sudan; her father from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and South has a passport from the North and the South. Sudan is particularly complex as regards When her parents went to the Sudanese identification, thanks to the separation embassy they told them to go to the South of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1992 and of Sudanese. When they went to the South South Sudan from Sudan in 2011. The Sudanese they told them no you should go to secessions have left people believed to the North. — Sudanese be of South Sudanese origin living in Sudan, or believed to be of Eritrean origin living in Ethiopia, with serious difficulties in obtaining recognition of Sudanese or Ethiopian nationality, even if they are entitled to it.61 Civil Registry Act 2011, section 11. Ethiopia Proclamation No. 760/2012 on the Registration of Vital Events and National Identity Card, section 7; Nigeria Births, Deaths, etc. (Compulsory Registration) Act No. 69 of 1992, section 44. 58 South Sudan Civil Registry Act 2018. 59 Human Rights Watch, ‘Service for Life: State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea’, April 2009. Available at https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/04/16/service-life/state-repression-and-indefinite-conscription-eritrea; International Crisis Group, ‘Eritrea: The Siege State’, Report 163 / Africa 21 September 2010. Available at https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/eritrea/eritrea-siege-state 60 ‘Eritrea: Identification documents, including national identity cards and birth certificates; requirements and procedures for obtaining and renewing identity documents, both within the country and abroad (2009–August 2013), 16 September 2013’, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, ERI104539.E. Available at https://www.refworld.org/docid/524970044.html 61 See, for example, Maureen Lynch and Katherine Southwick, ‘Ethiopia-Eritrea: Stalemate Takes Toll on Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean Origin’, Refugees International, 2008; Katherine Southwick, ‘Ethiopia-Eritrea: Statelessness and state succession’, Forced Migration Review, Vol. 32: Statelessness, 2009; Nasredeen Abdulbari, ‘Citizenship Rules in Sudan and Post-Secession Problems’, Journal of African Law, Vol. 55, No.2, 2011, pp. 157–80; Munzoul A. M. Assal, ‘Nationality and Citizenship Questions in Sudan after the Southern Sudan Referendum Vote’, Christian Michelsen Institute, 2011; Bronwen Manby, ‘International Law and the Right to Nationality in Sudan’, Open Society Foundations, 2011; Bronwen Manby ‘The Right to Nationality and the Secession of South Sudan: A Commentary on the Impact of the New Laws’, Open Society Foundations, 2012; Mike Sanderson, ‘Key Threats of Statelessness in the Post-Secession Sudanese and South Sudanese Nationality Regimes’, Tilburg Law Review, Vol. 19, 2014, pp. 236–47; Ahmad A. Sikainga, ‘Citizenship and Identity in Post-Secession Northern Sudan’, Bulletin of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars, Issue 86, 2011, pp. 11–19. 56 57