in London referred to the Syrian “Bidun” (without), and mentioned several
cases of statelessness. This included the issue of lost identity papers and
the Lebanese state refraining from granting official documents proving the
birth of children on its territory. The Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time
Gebran Bassil called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to “stop registering Syrian children who were born in Lebanon,” and
other problems facing children and their families.
| Stateless Children in the local media:
The local media was not more interested in Syrian stateless children than
the international media. However, some reports were written about the
problem, without going into detail, for example cases of childbearing as
a result of rape in detention centers were absent. In particular there was
a lack of concrete statistics, and interaction of documentation centers to
provide journalists with the necessary numbers to know the scale of the
problem. Some media outlets simply monitored the movements of the
Syrian regime to find solutions for unregistered children.
67
“Enab Baladi” newspaper is one of the few media outlets that attempted
to cover the issue of stateless children from Syrian mothers. In an investigation conducted in 2019 titled “Syrians only in name... refugee children
without Syrian nationality”44 the legal cases of Syrian refugee children who
were born in countries of asylum were discussed. They were not registered
in the Syrian official departments for several reasons mentioned by the
investigation, including:
- Families who oppose the Syrian regime and do not recognize its government and its official departments.
- The financial burdens facing refugees in both Turkey and Lebanon.
- The inability to formalize the marriage and difficulty in obtaining official papers from Syria.
44
Enab Baladi- Syrians only in name: refugee children without Syrian nationality- Zainab
Masri | Taim al-Haj | Murad Abdul Jalil
45
Enab Baladi- Children Made “Illegitimate” by War
HUMANS WITHOUT RIGHTS
In another article entitled “Children Made “Illegitimate” by War45,the newspaper dealt with the problem of Syrian children without a mother and father, or of women who were raped, or women who are unable to formalize their marriage or the lineage of their children. These children are thus
stigmatized as “foundlings”. The article also examined the measures taken
towards these children, so that they do not become stateless.
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