Statelessness in of Raqqa and Al-Bab cities
| Causes and prevalence:
Most of the female participants in the two cities indicated that the
problem of statelessness is not alien to their societies, as they encountered
a number of cases before the Syrian revolution, i.e. stateless Kurds, foundlings and stateless persons, in addition to some clans like “An-Nuar” and
“Zit” that live between the Syrian regions, which are not interested in registering children. However, these cases increased after the entry of foreign
fighters to Syria alongside both the Syrian regime and the opposition, in
addition to the high rate of displacement , and the deteriorating financial
situation.
The participants pointed out that the main reason for this problem from
the beginning are discriminatory laws against women, which deny them
many rights and place them in a lower position than men, in addition to
the absence of government institutions in areas outside the regime control,
and this absence naturally led to the inability to achieve registration of
marriages and births, and made obtaining official identification documents
extremely difficult.
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According to the field research the problem has started to appear strongly
in recent years as “children of ISIS,” as they are called, are at an age that
allows them to go to school, which is considered impossible, given that
they have no proof of identity.
| How the local communities have dealt
with those affected:
HUMANS WITHOUT RIGHTS
The opinions of the participants varied about how the local community
accepts stateless children, especially the children of fighters affiliated with
the organization, whether they are foreigners or Syrians. In the city of alBab, most of the parents did not accept children and their mothers, given
that they are “Ticking Bombs” as they call them, since they will carry the
thoughts of their fathers. And they put full responsibility on the “ISIS member” mother, as she is ignorant of her rights and her childrens’ rights, while
some of the parents dealt with children as orphans and merely deserving
pity.
As for the city of Raqqa, the community did not accept these children at
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