________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ AJSW, Volume 9 Number 1 2019 NCUBE, N.; CHIMBWANDA, T.; & NCUMISA, W. of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality. An asylum seeker is a person who enters a foreign country with or without legally required documents, with the intention of seeking refugee status, and whose status has not yet been lodged or has been lodged but has not yet been adjudicated. In the 2017 mid-year aggregation, the UNHCR recorded that Zimbabwe had a total population of 3 390 asylum seekers, not of concern persons and others of concern. The UNHCR uses the category ‘Others of Concern’ to refer to ‘Zimbabweans who are spouses and children to refugees and asylum seekers’. It highlights, however, ‘that at times parents prefer to register their children with the father’s nationality as a culture, which in the future makes it difficult to register the children under the mother’s nationality as the host parent. Hence according to the UNHCR the total population residing in the refugee camp includes individuals whose application for refugee status has been rejected, where the rejection is on ‘purely formal grounds’ or on substantive grounds that UNHCR would not consider sufficient; or following a process for determination of refugee status that is not procedurally fair. By law, asylum seekers should be considered to have the same rights as refugees, until such time as it is fairly determined that they do not have refugee status. However, evidence from Zimbabwe and across the globe suggests that this is often not the case (UNHCR, 2015). Zimbabwe’s legal framework on birth registration Zimbabwe’s legal framework on birth registration is informed by international laws. In addition to this, Zimbabwe has signed and ratified both the UNCRC and the ACRWC. Both these legal instruments place a legal obligation on the signatory state to register every child’s birth. Zimbabwe has domesticated this international obligation through its Births and Deaths Registration Act [Chapter 5:02] of 1986. Section 10 and 11 of this Act put in place measures which ensure that the birth of a child is registered, and includes a provision that enables other parties such as caregivers aged 18 years and above to register a child. It also provides caregivers and parents with a fortytwo day grace period within which to register the birth of a child. Although Zimbabwe signed the UNCRC and ACRWC and established a national legal frameworks for addressing child birth registrations, the national birth registration rate for children below the age of 5 years remains suboptimal; with great differentiations in the birth registration rates from province to province. According to the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS), “Births are registered with civil authorities for 44[%] of children under age 5” of this proportion of legally registered children, 33% had a birth certificate and 11% had their birth registered but did not obtain any birth certificate (ZIMSTAT & ICF International, 2016:7). Limitations Due to the lack of a decentralised birth registration system within the camp administered by the Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Home Affairs within the Department of the Registrar General, it is difficult to state conclusively how many children in the camp are undocumented, that is: without a birth certificate. In addition, this discussion paper is unable to speak to the individual experiences of refugees and asylum seekers with the Tongogara Refugee Camp as data is based on population statistics from the UNHCR and not biographical narrative interviews the refugees and asylum seekers in the camp. Thus, they is lack of available, reliable data and research studies on the issue of Birth registration in Tongogara refugee camp. However we note this as an avenue for follow-up research. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Fragile state, fragile context According to the World Bank (2015) Zimbabwe is a ‘fragile state’. The World Bank (2015) defines the term fragile state as being a low-income country characterised by weak state capacity or weak state legitimacy leaving citizens vulnerable to a range of shocks. A state is also deemed to be fragile if it is eligible for financial aid from the International Development Association (IDA). Zimbabwe embodies the characteristics of a ‘fragile state’ as defined by the World Bank. For example, Zimbabwe is a low income country with an average Zimbabwean living on $3.24 (United States dollars) a day and 72% of the population living below the World Bank International Poverty line of $1.90 a day (World Bank, 2015). Zimbabwe is also characterised by climate risks and instability in its economic, political and civic spheres. Hence, Zimbabwe has a heightened exposure to risks combined with a low capacity to mitigate or absorb them (Malek, 2016). Due to Zimbabwe being a fragile state, matters pertaining to the wellbeing of the refugees fall under the responsibility of international non-governmental organisations and development agencies such as the UNHCR and Terre des Hommes (TDH) in Zimbabwe. It is for this reason this paper argues that Zimbabwe is indeed a fragile state. The Tongogara refugee camp is run by UNHCR in partnership with the Zimbabwean state. The Government of Zimbabwe, through the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) within the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare are in close co-operation with other departments within the ministries to oversee the management of the camp with funding support from UNHCR. TDH Zimbabwe is a UNHCR technical support African Journal of Social Work, 9(1), 2019 66 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________