MAPPING OF THE POPULATION AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN ALBANIA Interview 3 S.M. is an Albanian citizen and is the uncle of K.M. a 12-year-old girl he cares for with his family. K.M.’s mother has been diagnosed with severe mental health problems. She is legally married to an Albanian citizen who has been away for years and has never been interested in the family. Because of her aggravated mental health condition and lack of proper care, K.M.’s mother has been living on the streets. From a casual extramarital relationship, K.M. was born. She was not registered in the civil registry office because she wasn’t born in hospital and there is no document certifying her birth. K.M. lived for many years with her mother on the streets and has never received health care and has never been registered in school. Now that her mother has been hospitalized, K.M. is being cared for by her uncle S.M. and his family. S.M. requires K.M. to be registered and obtain an identification document in order to enrol in school or receive health care. The Civil Status Office has suggested to S.M. that for the registration of K.M., there needs to be a judicial process to prove the fact of her birth and allow the registration to take place. Interview 4 S.M is a 12 year old girl. Her parents T.M and D.M. are married and have three other children. S.M. was born at home in 2005 and has never had a birth certificate. In June 2017, the Child Protection Unit was informed by the police that S.M had been sexually abused by her father. The Child Protection Unit took her into care and settled her in a child care institution. Her father was arrested, prosecuted and is waiting to be sentenced for his crimes. The institution discovered that S.M. had no birth certificate and was unregistered and has been unable to secure access to health care for her and has not been able to put her into pre-school. Being a victim of domestic sexual abuse, as well as unregistered and at risk of statelessness, S.M. is highly vulnerable and at high risk of further violation of her rights. The Child Protection Unit has requested assistance from TLAS for the registration of S.M. Interview 5 V.D. a retired schoolteacher asked to help and register 9 Albanian nationals who were unregistered (7 children, their mother and nephew). S.A. is a 44 year old Albanian citizen and the mother of 7 children. When she lived with V.G. (also Albanian citizen) she had 6 children, respectively E.A. (22), A.A. (20), B.A. (17), L.A. (16), 14 year old N.A., 8 year old A.A., R.A. (10 years of age) and her nephew who is 4 years of age. S.A. and the seven children were not registered in the civil status office. Civil servants could not register the children since initially S.A. herself couldn’t be registered. This was due to the fact that in her birth certificate she was born on 31 April 1973, which was impossible since April has 30 calendar days. Clearly this was a mistake made by the employees of the hospital where S.A. was born, but it also stopped UNHCR - TLAS / May 2018 69