 UNDERSTANDING STATELESSNESS IN THE SYRIA REFUGEE CONTEXT STATELESS REFUGEES FROM SYRIA 5 As the previous sections have shown, most refugees from Syria – and their children – are Syrian nationals who may need assistance in accessing and maintaining proof of their identity, links to Syria and nationality. However, some of the refugees from Syria were actually stateless, even before they became refugees: they are “not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law”.227 There are also some cases in which refugees have become stateless following their displacement as well as children born stateless in exile, including due to the intergenerational nature of statelessness among the populations concerned. 5.1 PROFILES OF STATELESS REFUGEES There is no comprehensive data on how many refugees from Syria are stateless, either in the region as a whole or in the individual neighbouring countries. UNHCR Lebanon reports that approximately 0.2% of Syrian refugees registered with them in Lebanon have been identified as stateless, which translates into several thousand persons.228 In the Domiz camp in KRI, which is the main camp for Syrian refugees, 5% were believed to be stateless Maktoum Kurds.229 Given that stateless refugees are not always registered with UNHCR and those registered are not always identified as stateless but may be recorded as Syrian nationals,230 there is a risk that many are not being identified as stateless in any data or research. The actual number of stateless refugees from Syria is therefore likely to be higher than these estimates. Unsurprisingly, the 227 228 229 230 44 RESEARCH REPORT 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, supra n3. Interview with UNHCR, Beirut Lebanon, May 2016. UNHCR, Domiz camp Survey Data, 2013. See further section 5.2.1.