DESK REVIEW ON POPULATIONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS Introduction This comprehensive desk review is part of a UNHCR Protection SURGE (Supporting UNHCR Resources on the Ground with Experts on mission) Capacity Project in support of the Philippines’ implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) to End Statelessness by 2024, particularly Action Point 7 on Improving Quantitative and Qualitative Data on Stateless Populations.40 This desk review will conduct data collection and analysis of populations at risk of statelessness in the Philippines and of Philippine descent in migratory settings. The Philippine Government, with support from UNHCR Philippines, conducted a series of inter-agency roundtable discussions from 2010-2011 which led to the determination of the following populations at risk of statelessness: • Children of Philippine descent in migratory settings • Sama Bajau • Persons of Indonesian Descent • Unregistered children within the context of forcible displacement due to armed conflict41 • Foundlings42 There are persons at risk of statelessness in the Philippines, and persons at risk of statelessness with factual and familial connections to the Philippines overseas. The Sama Bajau currently live across the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. They live a seafaring and itinerant lifestyle and have lived generations without birth registration.43 There were approximately 130,066 Sama Bajaus identified in the 2010 Philippine Census.44 UNHCR has developed response capacity across a broad range of UNHCR’s protection interventions. This response capacity is known as the Protection Surge Capacity Project, or SURGE (Supporting UNHCR Resources on the Ground with Experts on mission). Under an agreement between UNHCR and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the IRC maintains an active roster of experts who are deployed as “Experts on Mission” for the United Nations. The SURGE project research will produce a comprehensive desk review on populations at risk of statelessness in the Philippines and of Philippine descent in a migratory setting. It will also develop Policy Briefs in relation to identified legislative priorities, including: in support of accession to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the Comprehensive Refugee and Stateless Persons Protection Bill, and the Facilitated (Administrative) Naturalization Bills. 40 41 Please refer to footnote #7 for more information. 42 Please refer to footnote #10 for more information. A Pilot Birth Registration scheme spearheaded by the Zamboanga City local government and supported by UNHCR and UNICEF has provided around 600 birth certificates from 2019 to 2020. The project is targeted to be further expanded to reach more of the communities in need (See: https://www.unhcr.org/ph/17097-unhcr-unicef-zamboanga-birth-registration-samabajaus.html). 43 44 UNHCR / April 2021 Philippine Statistics Authority, 2010 Census. 19