MAPPING OF THE POPULATION AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN ALBANIA 2.3. Causes of statelessness Statelessness has a number of causes: dissolution and creation of States, lack of sufficient safeguards to prevent statelessness in national laws, inadequate birth registration procedures and discrimination, among others. Sometimes national laws or the compatibility of laws between states can be to blame and as we are seeing to frequently these days, children of refugees are at particular risk. The global map is changing and continues to be in flux. The dissolution of States and the creation on new ones, inevitably leads to numbers of people who were citizens of one country, now not being recognized as citizens of any. The stateless population is also increased through historic problems and modern ones. Foundlings are at risk, as are those subject to international adoption and more recently children born through surrogacy have proved to be vulnerable to gaps in a legal system that may not have anticipated or made provision for their birth. The fact that there is also a large group of stateless people who are in that condition through prejudice and discrimination is another matter of great concern. They may receive poor treatment or even hostility when they come to register a birth or through any process that may be related to their status or recognition as citizens. Through all of the above causes it can be seen the problems of statelessness can start early for a person and are likely to start in childhood and birth. In her report, ‘Child refugees without nationality - A short overview of statelessness policy and practice in Spain’11, Aleksandra Semeriak notes, ‘Some countries make it impossible for stateless parents or parents who can’t prove their identity, to register the birth of their children, which is the main reason why stateless children can’t acquire an identity document or passport - a basic tool to access fundamental rights such as healthcare and education. The consequences of this situation are devastating.” It is not uncommon, around the world, to find nationality laws that hinder or prevent women from passing their nationality to their children. For example, there are twelve countries in the Middle East, Syria being one, where it is only fathers who can pass on their nationality to their children. If we consider too that many married people may not have official documents to prove their marriage or those documents could be lost or left behind on displacement. It is also common for children whose parents are not married at the time of their birth to not be officially registered. 11 ‘Child refugees without nationality - A short overview of statelessness policy and practice in Spain’, ENS, 2017… A. Semeriak, available here: https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/child-refugees-without-nationality-short-overview-statelessness-spain UNHCR - TLAS / May 2018 21