UNDERSTANDING STATELESSNESS IN THE SYRIA REFUGEE CONTEXT  6.1 THE GENERAL REFUGEE POPULATION In a situation of forced displacement, proof of identity and of connection to the country of nationality is critical. Without this, a refugee who spends a long period in a situation of displacement or a child born in exile may face problems with the recognition of their nationality in the future. Thus, while most refugees from Syria do not face a significant risk of statelessness, this research confirmed the importance of continuing and strengthening activities aimed at facilitating access to documentation and civil registration for the refugee population as a whole. Such efforts help to protect refugees’ right to and proof of Syrian nationality. There are a number of specificities of the Syria displacement context that it would be useful for refugee response organisations to be aware of. Firstly, due to the conflict, the issuance of identity documents and civil registration has been disrupted and people’s existing documents may have been lost or destroyed, while the Syrian registries are not all digitised and the conflict may also have caused the destruction of registry records. Secondly, in areas that are not controlled by the government of Syria, non-State actors have started to perform civil registration and issue civil documentation, but the legal standing of these documents is problematic. Thirdly, numerous factors are obstructing access to civil registration for refugees in the host countries, including the need to present documents that refugees may not hold – for instance because these have been destroyed or because they hold papers which were issued by a non-State actor and these are not recognised by the authorities in the host country. Refugees who lack a residence permit or have not registered their stay in the host country may also face difficulties – legally or practically – in accessing civil registration procedures. Meanwhile, differences between the procedures in the host State and the Syrian processes and practices with which the refugees are familiar sometimes cause confusion for both the refugee population and the authorities in the host State, who are sometimes unaware that rules or practicalities can be “lost in translation”. The centrality of official marriage registration to the process of registering births in the host countries, where it effectively acts as a precondition for birth registration, is an example of how differences in traditions may generate challenges for the refugee population – in Syria, couples often delayed formalising marriages and official marriage registration documentation had less relevance. There are also problems with physical access to civil registration systems for some refugees in the host countries. The complexity and cost of “late” registration (i.e. after the deadline set by law) means that refugees who initially faced difficulties accessing registration or who wait too long to start the procedure will face additional challenges in registering. Finally, it was found that refugees may adopt certain coping strategies to circumvent problems of obtaining documentation, including returning to Syria to try to access procedures there or falsifying documents. Such practices may expose refugees to further risk and result in fake documents which are not accepted by the authorities. The longer the conflict in Syria endures and refugees remain in exile, the more essential it becomes to help them to maintain proof of their connection to Syria and of their Syrian nationality. Experience from other refugee situations around the world demonstrates how prolonged displacement can leave some refugees struggling to demonstrate their links to their country of origin and even lead to cases in which their nationality is not or no longer recognised. There is already widespread recognition of the need to devote attention to issues of civil registration and documentation within the Syria regional refugee response. To strengthen the capacity of organisations operating in the host countries to make effective interventions, it is important to provide information about the challenges which are specific to the Syria displacement context, as summarised above. Since these issues can potentially affect any refugee, the scale of displacement from Syria creates a significant challenge. There are, quite simply, so many refugees, who already have so many humanitarian needs, in so many locations. This means that generalised activities to encourage and assist refugees to preserve evidence of their and their family members’ Syrian nationality – ultimately contributing to preventing cases of statelessness throughout the refugee population – cannot be the remit of specialists only. Tools RESEARCH REPORT 55