MAPPING OF THE POPULATION AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN ALBANIA were unable to be registered directly at the office of civil registry. This provision is used as a solution for the registration of children and consequently, the reduction of statelessness for this category. Thus, many children were registered as found children and automatically have acquired Albanian nationality. Later on, court procedures are followed to appoint a legal custodian of the child. Unfortunately, there are no available data to properly quantify the last statement.41 4.3.2.2.2. Adoption and Surrogacy Under domestic law, if two Albanian citizens adopt a child, he/she automatically acquires Albanian nationality. An adopted child also acquires Albanian nationality if only one of the adoptive parents is an Albanian citizen, provided that both are residents in the Republic of Albania. After the Court decision granting the adoption of the child, he/she is registered with the family status of the adoptive parents and consequently, automatically gains their nationality. Therefore, it is not necessary for the parents to follow a special procedure for the adopted child in applying for nationality. Whether, if the child originally had a foreign nationality, he/she loses that nationality depends on the legal framework of the foreign country, in which the child previously enjoyed nationality. According to the Albanian Family Code, adoption is irrevocable, so if a child acquires nationality through adoption he/she cannot lose it. A minor may, however, lose his/her original Albanian nationality when he/ she is adopted by foreign citizens – but only if he/she acquires a new nationality through the adoption process. As such, there is no evidence of a risk of statelessness arising from inter-country adoption under Albanian law. Albanian legislation does not specifically deal with the question of acquisition of citizenship for children who born through a process of surrogacy. “Surrogacy” is mentioned indirectly in article 261 of the Family Code, which talks of surrogate adoption and refers to the Albanian Act on reproductive health. This act stipulates that surrogate adoption will follow the regular Albanian adoption procedures. In theory, a child who was a product of surrogacy would be adopted by the parents and would be entitled to Albanian nationality according to the same rules as outlined above. The law on reproductive health further provides that the procedure will be regulated through sub-legal acts, but no such sub-legal acts appear to have been formulated on this matter. Nor is there any information available on whether or how such cases have been dealt with in practice. 41 See Ending Childhood Statelessness, A Study on Albania, TLAS/ENS Working Paper 06/15, pp7-9, available at :https://www.statelessness.eu/ sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/Albania.pdf 40 UNHCR - TLAS / May 2018