Birth Registration and Consular Assistance in Egypt and Morocco 23 were not born in Egypt or Morocco, but rather in the country of origin or en route. There is no practical route for parents in this situation to obtain late registration of birth from the country of birth, and no procedure in either Egypt or Morocco, or among consular authorities, to recognise the child’s link to the parents and provide identity documents. Access to Consular Assistance If a valid identity document from a country of origin is required for a parent to regularise status in the country of residence or to register the birth of a child, then the accessibility of consular services for issue or renewal of documents is critical not only for the parent, but also for the child. In both Egypt and in Morocco, many of those interviewed had no identity documents of any kind from their country of origin. Their original documents had been lost, destroyed or confiscated during the journey; and some had left their country of origin without any documents at all. A combination of costs, fear, lack of knowledge, and heavy procedural requirements hindered issue or recovery of documents for parents, and that difficulty in turn could prevent registration of births in the host country or with the consulate. Migrants and refugees from Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea in Egypt all reported that their embassies were effectively inaccessible to them. In some cases, this was because their asylum claim or refugee status would be jeopardised if they were to approach the embassy. Others had been rejected for a refugee claim, but the embassy would not assist them with documents—they believed as a punishment for claiming refugee status. Others who had not claimed refugee status nevertheless feared surveillance. We need a solution for adults who have no identity documents and cannot approach their embassy to get them — Sudanese In Morocco, the requirements of the francophone West African countries for parents to present a Moroccan birth certificate in order to register a birth with the consulate created an obstacle to such registration even for parents who had valid passports. Adult migrants seeking to restore their identity documents reported investigations of different levels of intensity to confirm their nationality. Syria has no consulate in Morocco, meaning that Syrians must travel to Algeria or Spain to obtain or renew any documents. The Nigerian consulates had a more open attitude in both Egypt and Morocco, and were reported to accept testimony from the Nigerian community in the host country about the origins of a person in order to verify their Nigerian nationality: this applied both to children and to adults. Another significant barrier to accessing consular services for identity documents was cost. Consulates charge significant fees for issue or renewal of a passport: US$300 in case of a Syrian passport, valid only two years; US$100 for Sudanese and South Sudanese, valid for five years, and similar amounts for the others. These fees are out of reach for many migrants and refugees. Costs are also high for registering births, marriages or deaths, or for obtaining copies of civil status records from the home country. Eritreans must add the