CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY 2020 Groups at risk of statelessness The categories of people at risk of statelessness are similar across the African continent, and indeed across the world. This section outlines these common categories. It is not possible to provide statistics on how many are stateless: statelessness is often only a situation that becomes apparent over an extended period of time, after repeated efforts to obtain documents from the authorities of one or more countries. It is, in the end, an individual and not a group condition, and different members of a group sharing some characteristics may succeed or fail in obtaining recognition of nationality because of their different circumstances. Thus, the categories here are of people “at risk of” statelessness: not all those fitting the description of each group will in fact be stateless, and the level of risk may vary. The categories highlighted below are the following:  Foundlings, orphans and other vulnerable children  People of mixed parentage  Border populations  Descendants of pre-independence or very long-term migrants  Children of more recent migrants  Internally displaced persons  Refugees, former refugees and returnees When is lack of identity documentation evidence of statelessness?364 Lack of documentation is in part just one symptom of more general weaknesses in the state. A very large number of people in Member States of SADC have no documents because they don’t see the point of having documents, and because they are costly in time and money to obtain. The first point of need is often when a child should enter school or needs to take an exam, but if schools are inaccessible or of poor quality (either objectively or as a matter of opinion), then what need for birth registration? If you remain entirely in the informal sector, a peasant farmer or transhumant pastoralist, then identity documents are not required; if the police demand money when you cross a border or an internal checkpoint whether or not you have the right documents, then a passport or identity card does not serve even its most basic use of proving your right to be present or to travel. If, in addition, obtaining documentation requires a journey to the nearest administrative centre; a long wait to be seen; a mixture of official and unofficial fees, and at least a day’s lost income, the cost-benefit analysis looks untempting. It is not the case that all these people are necessarily stateless as a result: but those who are in this situation and are in addition members of a social group generally regarded as marginal – including those described in this study – are certainly at risk of statelessness. It is only in the effort of seeking documents that statelessness will become apparent. 364 Lightly modified version of text included in the reports Manby, “Migration, Nationality and Statelessness in West Africa”; Manby, “Citizenship and Statelessness in the East African Community”. UNHCR / December, 2020 84