Birth Registration and Consular Assistance in Egypt and Morocco 25 idence permit cannot obtain treatment at government hospitals. In Morocco also, a lack of birth registration may result in the exclusion of children, although initiatives have been undertaken to ensure that the children of foreigners are placed in school. For adults lacking identification, it was hard to distinguish the consequences of a lack of any identity documents at all from the consequences of a lack of documents showing a regular immigration status. However, a person without identity documents from a country of origin cannot obtain a regular migration status in the country of residence, other than that of asylum seeker or refugee. If we do not have valid documents we cannot do anything. A simple example is the difficulty to own a legal SIM card from phone companies in Egypt without legal ID. — Eritrean The embassy will not recognize this child. I wonder how we can go back home or to a different country without any proof that this child belongs to these parents. — Syrian I tried to register my child in school but they asked me to bring a birth certificate. I do not have one. — Ethiopian Egypt has not historically expelled those without papers from the country: our research came across migrants who had lived in Egypt for decades without any valid identity documents of any kind. Nonetheless, the lack of a valid residence permit increasingly makes movement outside an immediate neighbourhood difficult, creates the need to pay bribes, and prevents access to many services. Morocco’s resident migrant population is generally less long-standing, but the government has from time to time conducted round-ups of migrants, including during the recent drive for regularisation. Around 5,000 people were reported to have been caught up in raids over several months in 2018, and taken to the Algerian border or remote areas in the south of the country.66 In the absence of identity documents, there was also no possibility of regularising a person’s status in Morocco. Lack of documents showing regular migration status generally led to an inability to obtain regular work or to increased likelihood of exploitation and to difficulties in accessing health care and housing. Without a residence permit, it may be impossible to rent a place to live: a residence permit depends either on recognition as a refugee or the possession of valid identity documents from a home country. In Egypt, increasingly more stringent requirements to present identification at different points mean that lack of a valid residence permit will prevent purchase of a SIM card for a mobile phone or opening a bank account. Without a bank account or SIM card, migrants cannot receive money transferred from relatives who have reached Europe or the United States. Despite some help supported by UNHCR or by some NGOs, there is a lack of legal assistance to resolve challenges of identity documentation for refugees and, especially, irregular migrants, in both countries. ‘Dénonciation des déplacements forcés et illégaux des migrant(e)s noir(e)s du Nord du Maroc’, AMDH, 25 September 2018 (originally in Arabic 16 August 2018); ‘Morocco: Relentless crackdown on thousands of sub-Saharan migrants and refugees is unlawful’, Amnesty International, 7 September 2018. 66