AHMR African Human Mobilty Review - Volume 8 No 3, SEP-DEC 2022 conflict, displacement across borders does not automatically result in statelessness or a lack of protection. Depending on where persons are displaced and for how long, they may be protected by existing international and domestic legal instruments and may qualify as asylum seekers or refugees. The following section explores how the scenarios discussed above can result in statelessness and leave displaced persons without protection. IV. CIRCUMSTANCES MAY LEAD TO UNCERTAIN RIGHTS AND LEGAL STATUSES OF STATELESS PERSONS Various legal frameworks exist internationally and regionally aimed at the protection of persons forced or compelled to abandon their homes. The application of these frameworks depends on the nature of forced displacement. There are two types of forced displacement: internal and external.71 Internal displacement refers to the situation where persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalised violence, violations of human rights, or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised state border.72 On the other hand, external displacement refers to situations where persons or groups of persons are forced or compelled to leave their country and seek sanctuary in or protection of another country. Depending on the nature of the displacement, the affected persons may fall into the categories of refugees (or asylum seekers), stateless persons, or IDPs. Affected persons may fall into more than one of these categories and have the rights and protections of more than one framework.73 In each of the scenarios discussed in section III, the persons displaced may be at risk of statelessness, but depending on how they were displaced, and on what state they ultimately find themselves in, they will enjoy different rights, statuses, and protections. (a) Statelessness status Before dealing with how the status of such persons will be determined, it is necessary to elaborate on how the above scenarios can lead to statelessness specifically. While in the past, the focus has been on statelessness due to loss of statehood in the sinking state scenario, recently it has been acknowledged that statelessness is more likely to result in other discussed scenarios, that is, in the case of rapid- or slow-onset disasters, or climate change-induced conflict. This can occur because when persons are forced to migrate, they may lose their identity and registration documentation in the process.74 This is especially true, for example, in the case of a rapid-onset disaster, Walter Kälin op cit note 39 at 92. Internal displacement, available at https://www.internal-displacement.org/internal-displacement. Walter Kälin op cit note 39 at 92. 74 UNHCR ‘Statelessness and climate change factsheet’ 29 October 2021, available at https://www.refworld.org/ docid/617c01da4.html, accessed on 7 February 2022. 71 72 73 106