Ivorian nationals who fled Côte d’Ivoire,185 returning refugees certainly constitute a vulnerable group that faces documentation problems. As such, UNHCR and its Ivorian government partner, the Service for Aid and Assistance to Refugees and Stateless Persons (Service d'Aide et d'Assistance aux Réfugiés et Apatrides, or SAARA), are assisting returnees in obtaining personal identification documentation. Whether returning refugees can be said to be at risk of statelessness depends on the circumstances of the communities concerned. For example, UNHCR and SAARA assisted in facilitating birth registration in the village of Doké on the Bloléquin road close to Liberia in western Côte d’Ivoire. Although many people in this village fled to Liberia during the post-election violence, they have now returned to their home village. The community is almost entirely made up of ethnic Ivorian Guéré who speak the Guéré language. They are well organized with the village chief presiding over local community matters. In tight-knit homogeneous ethnic communities such as Doké, given that people are able to testify on behalf of each other to establish their identity without much contestation, this community generally does not present a high risk of statelessness. The case of children of Ivorian refugees born abroad is more complex and unregistered refugee children born abroad who have returned to Côte d’Ivoire can certainly be considered to be at risk of statelessness. Ivorian law requires that Ivorian births abroad are registered with heads of Ivorian diplomatic missions or consular agents abroad.186 These missions are to share duplicate copies of their civil registers with the Department of Legal and Consular Affairs of the Ivorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abidjan, which is the only national entity in Côte d’Ivoire authorized to deliver copies of consular registration of birth abroad. However refugees, by nature of their status, are unable to contact consular authorities of the home country they have fled. Where refugee children born abroad have complied with local birth registration procedures in the country of birth in exile, birth certificates proving this foreign registration are not legally valid for administrative or judicial purposes in Côte d’Ivoire. Upon return to Côte d’Ivoire, children of Ivorian refugees who have not registered their births with Ivorian consular officials are nevertheless required to fulfill their civil status obligations, including establishing a jugement supplétif of birth abroad. Only the First Instance Court in Abidjan has subject-matter jurisdiction to process civil status matters that occurred abroad. Needless to say, costs related to travel to Abidjan can be prohibitive for returnee families. For their part, returnee children born in exile with foreign birth certificates must have their birth records transcribed in both the consular registers abroad as well as with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abidjan.187 This is also a cumbersome affair. UNHCR and SAARA are developing practical solutions to provide birth registration to returned Ivorian refugee children. They are developing revisions to the implementing decree and circular of the law on civil status with regards to Ivorians abroad, which would allow children born abroad, including in asylum countries, to register their births in the civil registration offices where their parents or legal guardians reside upon return. This would be a commendable effort to contribute to the prevention of statelessness among this population and advocacy efforts should be pursued to ensure the adoption of this bill as soon as possible by the Ivorian government. The longer it takes for returnee families to resolve birth registration of their children, the more complicated the procedure will become and the greater the risk of statelessness. 185 Confirming the nationality status (or statelessness status where applicable) of the individual refugee concerned is inherent in the refugee registration process. 186 Décret No. 65-431 du 23 décembre 1965, Etat Civil des Ivoiriens à l’Etranger. 187 According to UNHCR, among returnees who had been in exile in Liberia, 36% have never had their births registered, while 9% require transcription of a birth or marriage certificate produced in Liberia. 51