e d u c atio n The stateless children and youth consulted for this report confronted numerous challenges when it came to pursuing an education. In some cases, schools denied non-nationals entry to the classroom or demanded fees applicable to foreigners, rendering an education beyond reach. In others, stateless children were refused admission to final exams or had their diplomas and graduation certificates withheld, halting their progress to higher education and better jobs. They frequently found themselves ineligible for scholarships or student loans. Even when other factors were favourable, educational opportunities were cut short because stateless youngsters were denied permission to move within or beyond their countries’ borders. Whatever the obstacle, the outcome was the same: another young stateless person unable to reach his or her potential. Christina, 18, and her family, Italy. © U N H C R / F. M A RT I N O Primary education – not always a right 8 Virtually all of the young stateless people that UNHCR spoke to had been able to attend primary school. While the Dominican Republic, Italy, Malaysia and the care of a family from the same ethnic group. As her birth was never registered, there is no official proof of her parentage. Her foster family has tried to trace anyone who could testify with regard to her parentage, to no avail. The authorities consider Annick’s parentage to be unknown, which means she cannot be considered an Ivorian national and remains stateless. Thida, 18, Thailand. Lack of birth registration Lack of birth registration can make it difficult for individuals to prove that they have the relevant links to a State that entitle them to nationality, and therefore creates a risk of statelessness. This is because birth registration indicates where a person was born and who his or her parents are – key pieces of information needed to establish which country’s nationality a child can acquire. Lack of birth registration creates a particularly high risk of statelessness for specific groups, such as refugees and migrants, as well as nomadic and border populations. Birth registration is therefore of vital importance to, for example, Syrian refugee children born in countries of asylum, many of whom have been separated from their parents or families; it would help prevent statelessness among these children, ensure they are recognized as Syrian nationals and allow them to return to Syria when conditions permit. S TAT E L E S S N E S S R E P O R T ©UNHCR / R. ARNOLD Gaps in nationality laws Safeguards in nationality laws against statelessness at birth prevent statelessness from being passed down from one generation to the next. They also help to avert statelessness where parents have a nationality but are unable to confer it on their child, or where a child has been abandoned and the parents are unknown. More than half the States in the world lack or have inadequate safeguards in their nationality laws to grant nationality to children born stateless in their territory. In certain cases, nationality laws may include safeguards, but there may be gaps in their application. This is a major cause of childhood statelessness – at least 70,000 stateless children are born each year in the countries hosting the 20 largest statelessness situations. Abandoned children whose parents cannot be identified (foundlings) are another group at risk of statelessness. Nearly one third of all States lack provisions in their nationality laws to grant nationality to such children found in their territory. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, the absence of this safeguard combined with the country’s history of immigration and civil war means that out of an estimated stateless population of 700,000 individuals, some 300,000 are thought to be foundlings. Annick (13) was left in the care of her grandparents in Côte d’Ivoire when she was very young. A few years later, her grandparents died. She was then placed in Thailand do not restrict access to primary education for stateless children, in Côte d’Ivoire and Georgia identity documents are officially required. Despite this, almost all those consulted had found a way to go to primary school, although not without struggle and often reliant on the flexibility and goodwill of school principals and teachers. A number of the parents and children recounted having to persuade school staff regularly to keep the door to the classroom open. “If you don’t have documents you are bothered about it at school all the time and you feel embarrassed. But I was able to finish school with the help of my teachers,” says Isabella, a young stateless woman of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic. This too was the case for Keti (19), in Georgia. She says she was only able to attend school because the school director took pity on her. She recalled the strong sense of gratitude that she felt towards this official, as he would have been personally liable had authorities discovered that he was permitting an undocumented stateless child to attend the school. S TAT E L E S S N E S S R E P O R T 9