a complex bureaucratic process. In many countries, a child can only be registered if the parents (particularly the mother) are able to submit certain identification documents 8 – such as in Germany, where unmarried parents must submit their birth certificates and a declaration of paternity, 9 in Montenegro where there are bureaucratic barriers to registering a child’s birth if the parents are undocumented,10 and in Serbia where late birth registration is a complex and lengthy procedure that requires the mother to be present and registered. 11 Measures adopted to report people with irregular residence to immigration authorities represent additional challenges for registering the birth of children. In Europe, very few countries have firewalls prohibiting the exchange of information between health and immigration authorities, and in some countries public officials must mandatorily report certain immigration matters to the enforcement authorities (such as Belgium, Germany and the UK). These measures may deter mothers with irregular residence status, which is often the case for victims of trafficking, from registering their child or accessing healthcare. The Special Rapporteur, the Human Rights Committee 12 and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women 13 have repeatedly called for statelessness to be addressed as part of States’ due‑diligence obligations to prevent trafficking, yet this link remains insufficiently incorporated into European anti‑trafficking policy and practice. Recommendations to prevent and reduce statelessness, including the central role of birth registration Preventing and reducing statelessness is a core element of States’ due‑diligence obligations to prevent trafficking, particularly child trafficking. As the Special Rapporteur has noted, “[t]he obligation of due diligence to prevent trafficking in persons requires States to take measures to prevent and eliminate statelessness, especially given the credible evidence of heightened risks of trafficking, in particular for children who are stateless”.14 To meet these obligations, States must therefore adopt effective measures to uphold every child’s right to acquire a nationality. Universal birth registration is also a foundational safeguard against statelessness and a crucial ENS, Thematic briefing: Birth registration and the prevention of statelessness in Europe: Identifying good practices and remaining barriers, 2024, pages 8-10. 9 ENS, Statelessness Index: Germany; Statefree, ENS, ISI, Joint submission to the Human Rights Council at the 44 th session of the Universal Periodic Review (Fourth Cycle), Germany, 5 April 2023. 10 ENS, Statelessness Index: Montenegro. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called on Montenegro to ‘ensure the registration of children in cases where the mother is unknown or lacks an identification document and continue efforts to provide them with identification documents and with legal aid, when necessary, for birth registration’. See CERD, Concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Montenegro, 19 September 2018, CERD/C/MNE/CO/4-6, para 15(f). In October 2019, under UNHCR’s global #IBelong campaign, Montenegro pledged to ensure effective birth registration of children whose mothers do not have identification documents. 11 ENS, Statelessness Index: Serbia. See also Praxis & ENS, Joint submission to the Human Rights Council at the 43 rd Session of the Universal Periodic Review (Fourth Cycle), Serbia, 11 October 2022. 12 UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Thailand, 119th Session, 25 April 2017, CCPR/C/THA/CO/2, paragraphs 24 and 42 (b). 13 UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 38 on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration, 20 November 2020, CEDAW/C/GC/38; CEDAW, Concluding observations on the combined sixth and seventh periodic reports of Thailand, 67 th Session, 24 July 2017, CEDAW/C/THA/CO/6-7, paragraphs 24 and 42 (b). 14 UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Siobhán Mullally, ‘Refugee protection, internal displacement and statelessness’, 3 July 2023, A/HRC/53/28, paragraph 10. 8