Statelessness, Trauma and Mental Well-being resources that they have. This often means that they may negotiate to be smuggled or their vulnerability leads them to trafficking perpetrators. In addition, women may purposely marry local men and parents are reported to lie about their daughter’s age to marry them off early. Statelessness can thus perpetuate child marriages and trafficking in persons and vice versa and attempts to fight one may implicate the other. Stateless persons are likely to encounter travel restrictions, social exclusion, violence, discrimination, exploitation, and are at risk of forced displacement and prolonged or indefinite arbitrary detention. There is also worry and anxiety linked to arrests or attempted and repeated deportations and where they will be returned to, as they are not linked to any country. The lack of being given a legal status, leads to a precarious and degraded status of illegal and undocumented immigrant, resulting in a protection deficit and being deprived of critical rights. Denial of rights can lead to trauma for a stateless person. Citizenship constitutes an unearned form of social capital that is claimed and experienced in distinctively gendered ways. The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a bright light on the perils of statelessness, especially for women, who face exacerbated socio-economic inequities, the forced commodification of their sexuality, and exclusion from mechanisms of justice.42 The vulnerabilities of stateless people are generally increased as they are considered and marginalised as ‘other’ or ‘outsiders’, with their survival, rights, and dignity already compromised by social exclusion mechanisms such as legal invisibility, geographic segregation, and social ostracism. Citizenship means access to rights and thus, speaking out is a struggle. For many stateless people talking out or acting when wronged or faced with a situation of abuse can also become problematic or increase their vulnerability. The lack of citizenship silences stateless persons and robs them of their voices. Stateless parents were overwhelmed by the effect of COVID-19 and subsequently had limited or no time and resources to advocate on behalf of their stateless children. The resolution of cases of statelessness through the (re)instatement or conferring of citizenship can have a positive impact on a stateless person’s enjoyment of rights and quality of life. In certain circumstances, it has been reported to end years or even lifetimes of exclusion, marginalisation and abuse. This, however, is not the case for everyone and it begs the question: To what extent does the formal acquisition of citizenship end the psychosocial challenges and traumatic experiences encountered and endured by previously stateless persons? IV. MENTAL HEALTH OF STATELESS PERSONS This section presents and addresses mental health challenges that prevail in stateless persons, particular stressors that may elicit these, and how interventions may assist. It is worth noting that the experience of being stateless, in all its forms, levels and periods experienced is highly stressful and traumatising. The damage of mental health 42 Roshni Chakraborty & Jacqueline Bhabha (2021) op cit note 3 237 at 237. 49