This can be illustrated in the case of Omar,190 born in Burkina Faso in 1966, who came to Côte d’Ivoire in 1988 and is in a customary marriage with a Burkinabè woman. Both Omar and his wife never had their births registered in Burkina Faso and have never possessed any identification documentation. They have four children; the first born in Burkina Faso in 1987, and three others born in Côte d’Ivoire in 1989, 1992, and 1996. None of their children’s births have been registered. They live in the Burkinabè settlement community in Thomasset. Their youngest child attends the local school even without documentation. Their second youngest child also attended the local primary school but was unable to continue past the CM2 level (around the age of 10-11) because she has no ID documents. It would appear that Omar, his wife, and eldest child would not be able to obtain new Burkinabè biometric consular card without any birth certificates from Burkina Faso. His three youngest children could obtain jugements supplétifs documenting their birth in Côte d’Ivoire. With that, it would be up to the discretion of the Burkinabè consular officials to determine, based on the information about their parents, whether to accord them Burkinabè consular cards. What would happen if Omar and his wife were to pass away? The most at risk of statelessness would be the eldest son. At his age and given his long-term residence in Côte d’Ivoire, Omar would face tremendous hurdles in obtaining a Burkinabè birth certificate. His case underscores how special arrangements between Côte d’Ivoire and its neighboring States will be necessary to effectively prevent statelessness. Trafficked persons can be at acute risk of statelessness. No studies exist that document the estimated prevalence of trafficking in Côte d’Ivoire. One study from 2006, however, looked at exploited trafficked children in coffee and cacao plantations.191 It found that the exploited children were primarily teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18, with boys typically working in the plantation fields and girls employed as domestic personnel. With respect to their nationality, this study found that they were mostly of Burkinabè, Malian, Guinean, and Béninois origin. Anecdotally, several Ivorian humanitarian organizations and other international agencies consulted in 2014, including UNICEF,192 shared their general impression that most trafficked persons they encounter do not possess any personal identification documents. In light of this, it is safe to say that trafficked persons, particularly undocumented minor children of foreign origin are at high risk of statelessness, with limited legal avenues for establishing filiation and therefore nationality. Some nongovernmental organizations have developed crossborder networks and in a few, isolated, cases have successfully repatriated trafficked migrant children to their countries of origin.193 These are certainly the exceptions, rather than the rule. The case of Ali, interviewed by UNHCR in western Côte d’Ivoire for the purposes of this study, captures the complex dynamics of migration, internal trafficking, and statelessness. Ali was born in 1981 in a town in the East of Côte d’Ivoire. His parents abandoned him, but he grew up among the Burkinabè community there and speaks Mooré. At six years old, an “aunt” took him and brought him to Gbapleu in western Côte d’Ivoire. The “aunt” left him with a man who subsequently gave him to another man, who forced him to work on his cocoa plantation for seven years. Aged 13, he went back to see the first man, an important business person in Gbapleu, asking to be reunited with his family. Instead, he was forced into further labor for seven years. In 2012, Ali decided to go to the town of his birth to look for his parents. To travel, a Burkinabè man in the community gave him the Burkinabè consular card of his deceased son. Ali stayed in the town of his birth in eastern Côte d’Ivoire for three months. The Burkinabè village chief there told him that his mother was 194 190 Interview, Thomasset, July 2014. Name changed. Study by Doh and Sissoko A, quoted in Merabet, supra note 19. 192 Interviews, Abidjan, July 2014. 193 Interviews, Abidjan, June-July 2014. 194 Interview, August 2014. A multimedia feature on Ali’s story is available at: http://kora.unhcr.org/statelessalone-invisible/. 191 53