E MP LOYMENT nationality she could not have her name put on the title to the land. I feel really frightened that our home could be taken at any time”. JIRAIR, 19, GEORGIA Vulnerability to exploitation and abuse Statelessness can also exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, and in extreme cases, lead to exploitation and abuse. In Côte d’Ivoire, many abandoned children are stateless and their lack of documents proving their identity and nationality makes their already precarious situation even more so. David (10) is not able to go to school because his caregiver believes it would not be possible without documents. His situation has taken a serious toll on him; he is incontinent, and as a result is made to sleep alone. While his friends and foster siblings study, David takes the family’s sheep out to pasture and does chores around the house. Mistreatment can take different forms as stateless children grow older. Clémentine (22) and Odile (21) are stateless sisters living in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. When they were very young they were made to work in a restaurant and later forced into prostitution by the aunt in whose care they had been placed as small children. Lacking the protection of nationality documents they found themselves trapped. Only after the situation became intolerable did they find the courage to flee. However, they lost all their belongings, including the birth record of Clémentine’s four-year old son, leaving him at a high risk of statelessness. Kavita, 22, Malaysia. “The doors of the world are closed to me.” The single most cited frustration of young peo- ©UNHCR / R. ARNOLD Constant insecurity Statelessness may also expose children to experiences that can make them feel insecure and frightened to move around. In Malaysia, Sajna (19) recalls an incident when she was just 17 that has stuck with her: “Two years ago I was on a bus which was stopped at a roadblock. The police were looking for bandits. They checked me and because I did not have any proof of nationality they took me off the bus. It was so embarrassing; as if I was a criminal. I went to the police station and we finally settled the matter. It was a terrible experience.” Joseph (23) in Côte d’Ivoire explains how he fears leaving his home village: “I can’t move around because the police and gendarmerie ask for documents. I don’t have documents so they ask me for money. Because I can’t pay, they threaten to beat me and arrest me.” Security was seen as integrally linked to citizenship. One stateless parent from Italy, Dumitru, recalls how, as an 18-year old, he had faced arrest and been threatened with deportation. Another stateless father, Sandokan, noted that Italian nationality was an especially important form of protection in light of the fact that his family was readily identifiable as Roma and thus subject to discrimination. In Thailand, Artee (18) explains that without citizenship, her family could, at any moment, be evicted from their home: “My mother bought land informally from someone she knew, but because none of us have ple consulted for this report was the lack of jobs to match their ability, ambitions and potential. Left unresolved, statelessness created new and insurmountable roadblocks for them as they were moving from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. Whether as a result of their limited access to educational opportunities or inability to travel as freely as their national counterparts, stateless youth often found that statelessness held them back from freedom, independence and a break from the poverty and marginalization they had grown up with. Many revealed how they had settled for a life that allowed them to meet their basic needs, but fell far short of the future they had imagined for themselves. Uncertainty and disillusion Most of the young people interviewed revealed that as they approached school-leaving age they developed an acute sense of the impact that statelessness would have on their future prospects. “My entire life is a question-mark,” says Vikash (23) from Malaysia, summing up the frustration, uncertainty and disillusion about the future articulated by many of the stateless youth that UNHCR spoke to. He and others wanted to travel to work in Singapore or India, but without travel documents even a journey beyond the borders of their federal state could land them in detention. Javier (19) in the Dominican Republic, now a construction worker, has unfulfilled ambitions because without documents proving that he is a national, he has not been able to acquire the necessary academic qualifications: “I want to study law because being a 18 S TAT E L E S S N E S S R E P O R T lawyer is a profession that I respect” he says “My dream is to practice law and help people with problems.” Many of the stateless young people interviewed said they had realized how severely their employment horizons were curtailed because of restrictions on their travel to look for work beyond their local communities and districts. As King (19) from Thailand says: “To get a good job I need work experience. But each time I want to travel beyond the district borders I have to get a permit. It’s a real hassle and means that I miss out on the experience I need to be competitive. I watch others surge forward. Sometimes I feel like this is the end.” Through persistence and determination, some stateless youth have made it to the end of demanding and competitive selection procedures – only to be refused employment because their lack of nationality prevented them from meeting formal requirements for the job. Kavita in Malaysia wanted to teach art but no college would admit her because she was stateless. Undeterred, she applied for a job with the local nursery school, but despite excelling during the interview she was refused employment because she could not set up a bank or pension account. Now, she works in a friend’s grocery store. “It’s a dead-end job,” says Kavita. “But, for now this job has been very helpful since I don’t have proof of any nationality and can’t work anywhere else. But I wish to become a teacher. It’s been my ambition since I was very young. I now tutor children at my uncle’s house. It’s how I keep my dream alive.” Unable to acquire professional qualifications, many stateless young people pursue vocational courses S TAT E L E S S N E S S R E P O R T 19