 UNDERSTANDING STATELESSNESS IN THE SYRIA REFUGEE CONTEXT refugees were living.218 In Jordan, all Syrian refugees who were not registered with UNHCR before the 14th of July 2014 and have left the camps will not be able to register with UNHCR unless they obtain a ‘bailout’ permit from a camp.219 Since January 2015 Jordanian authorities have frozen the process of issuing ‘bailouts’.220 Due to the tightening of registration/screening procedures for refugees (to avoid fraudulent access to humanitarian assistance), it has sometimes become difficult for persons without any documents to register as refugees because of their inability to prove that they are from Syria.221 This is a general policy to avoid corruption but one consequence is the creation of a challenge for refugee families who do not have documents, who cannot prove that they are from Syria and who may thereby already be at heightened risk of statelessness – including Maktoum refugees (see below).222 4.2.3 MAKTOUM - THOSE WHO WERE NEVER REGISTERED IN SYRIA Maktoum is a term used to describe the situation of individuals who had never been registered in Syria and for whom there is no official record of their existence.223 They have never been formally documented; their names and the names of their families are not registered in the Syrian records, leaving them unable to obtain a national ID card. These circumstances, coupled with their subsequent displacement by the conflict, puts the Maktoum at significant risk of statelessness. Many Maktoum belong to families in which several generations have gone unregistered. In some instances, the initial lack of registration was to avoid military service, in others it was to prevent members of the family from inheriting property. Some Maktoum have no documents, whereas others possess a taaref card which was obtained from their local Mokhtar in Syria. The wording on the back of this document is ambiguous as to whether they are Syrian nationals. This document served as basic proof of identity for Maktoum in their hometowns inside Syria. In exile, their status is more precarious as the taaref is not always accepted as proof of identity for the purposes of accessing e.g. civil registration procedures. So children of Maktoum who are born in exile may be left entirely without proof of identity.224 Moreover, it is unclear whether this population is considered to be nationals by Syria under the operation of its law, and if so, whether this will continue in the future. There are no figures for the number of Maktoum from Syria among the refugee population in the region – nor was this population flagged previously in 218 Boston University Law Clinic, Protecting Syrian Refugees, supra n81. To expand the number of registered Syrian refugees in Egypt, since 2013 UNHCR has established a “mobile registration process” in Cairo, Alexandria and Damietta, and has increased efforts to inform Syrians of the benefits of UNHCR registration. Due to security concerns, however, mobile registration has maintained a slow pace, and many of the Syrians that live scattered throughout Egypt’s urban centres remain unaware of UNHCR’s registration initiatives. For these and other reasons, UNHCR has only been able to register less than half of the estimated Syrians who have fled to Egypt. 219 Interview with ICLA, Amman Jordan, July 2016. 220 Information provided by ICLA Jordan. 221 UNHCR Lebanon states that when a person with no documentation seeks registration with UNHCR they go through a nationality verification procedure. This procedure started being implemented from July 2013, when there was a massive influx of refugees from Qusair, Syria, many of whom were undocumented. The verification is very thorough and can take around one hour per case to complete. In those cases where there was a doubt as to the person’s nationality, staff would give them the benefit of the doubt and register the case. Prior to the introduction of this procedure, there may have been cases that were unable to register under the presumption that those who are undocumented are ineligible for registration. However, those who were rejected before July 2013 approached UNHCR again (either at the Reception centres or through mobile missions) after it became known that UNHCR had introduced the new nationality verification procedure alongside their continuous outreach programmes and referral systems targeting potential unregistered Persons of Concern. 222 Interview with effected population, Tal Abbas Lebanon, 3 and 4 June 2016. 223 Note that the Maktoum referred to here are a distinct population from the stateless Kurdish Maktoum who are discussed later on in the report. 224 See further section 3.1.3 42 RESEARCH REPORT