their full conformity with the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, which were noted by South Africa. Snapshot of Statelessness in South Africa 7. South Africa does not have a mechanism to identify stateless persons, but it is estimated that over 10,000 people are stateless and over 15 million people are unregistered or undocumented, with 3 million under the age of 18. 14 A number of legal, administrative and practical barriers exist in the immigration/refugee, birth registration and citizenship frameworks that increase the risk of statelessness, as explained in this submission. Despite South Africa’s international obligations, serious concerns exist relating to children’s right to a nationality and the law, policy and practice of birth registration which undermines children’s right to a nationality. I. Unaccompanied or Separated Migrant Children (USMC) and Young Adults 8. USMC encounter several situations during the migration cycle that place them at heightened risk of statelessness and hinder their ability to access basic rights. The ability to access immigration status or birth certificates is often linked to the immigration and documentation status of the parent. In South Africa, gaps in the legal frameworks and how the law is applied results in many USMC remaining in a protracted legal limbo for years without durable immigration status or other identity documentation to prove nationality. This has significant consequences when they reach the age of majority. This section details significant barriers to immigration documentation and nationality within the asylum and immigration regimes, the Citizenship Act, and Children’s Court (CC) processes. 9. There is an increasing number of USMC in South Africa who are often placed in child and youth care centres (CYCCs) by an order of the CC while they are minors/dependents and have no option of returning to, no knowledge of, or no meaningful connection to their country of origin. These children can be stateless or at risk of statelessness as there is no legal safeguard for them to obtain citizenship in South Africa. 10. More specifically, lack of access to documentation to evidence nationality and/or immigration status regularisation remains a significant obstacle in accessing nationality for USMC, increasing risks of statelessness.15 USMC in South Africa can regularise their immigration status and gain access to documentation in one of two ways: (1) if the child falls within the definition of a refugee, they can be assisted to apply for asylum; 14 Lawyers for Human Rights, Statelessness and Nationality in South Africa, Presentation to Department of Home Affairs Portfolio Committee, 9 March 2021, Parliament, Cape Town. 15 This barrier for USMC to acquire a durable immigration status was identified by the High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change which recommended that Parliament should amend the Immigration Act to provide ‘a legal immigration status to unaccompanied migrant children placed in the care system’. See Recommendation 4.12a of the Panel’s 2017 report at https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Pages/2017/october/High_Level_Panel/HLP_Report/HLP_report.pdf. 3