 UNDERSTANDING STATELESSNESS IN THE SYRIA REFUGEE CONTEXT the fact that even when identified they may not be registered as stateless by humanitarian organisations. This makes it hard to assess their situation or provide targeted support and contributes to the invisibility of this group. Despite the problems identified by the research it also found that humanitarian organisations and host governments have already developed some good practices which can help to prevent statelessness among refugees from Syria. Efforts have been made to assess the risk of statelessness among Syrian refugee children in specific host countries and raise awareness of the challenges faced in protecting Syrian refugee children’s right to nationality. Most importantly, host governments have taken steps to simplify or otherwise facilitate access to civil registration procedures for refugee families on their territory so that they can document their connection to Syria. Overall, this research project confirmed the need to pay greater attention to helping Syrian refugees protect their right to Syrian nationality, especially in the face of problems relating to access to civil registration and to documentation proving nationality. The fact that a sub-set of refugees displaced by the conflict in Syria are stateless poses an additional challenge to ensuring that their protection needs are met and may present problems at a later date in the pursuit of durable solutions. Humanitarian and protection actors have a crucial role to play in providing assistance and protection to stateless refugees from Syria and mitigating the risk of statelessness for them and their children, including through both programme and advocacy activities. A central priority must be to prevent new cases of statelessness amongst the refugee population by ensuring access to civil registration procedures and to documentation proving nationality. While general measures to increase registration rates and facilitate procedures are having an important impact, efforts must be stepped up to address those cases in which access to or recognition of nationality is not straightforward. Moreover, it is vital to pay due attention to the particular situation and vulnerabilities of refugees who are also stateless. 8 RESEARCH REPORT