DESK REVIEW ON POPULATIONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS Information that specifically speaks to the risk of statelessness among overseas Filipinos in Saudi Arabia is limited, and one of the primary sources is this 2011 Government of Philippines Report of the Investigating Mission of the Committee on Overseas Workers’ Affairs to Saudi Arabia. However, it has been nearly a decade since this report was produced and based on interviews with Social Welfare Attachés deployed to Saudi Arabia after 2011, it appears that things may have moved significantly since this time. It was reported that the number of undocumented Filipinos has been greatly reduced, that more than 2,000 children had been repatriated in around 2013, and that a database is now in place to track all cases of Filipinos coming into the country.153 It was shared by Social Welfare Attachés that the government is cooperative in efforts to track down undocumented children and parents, and there was an agreement between the Embassy and the government of Saudi Arabia, on the process for repatriation of undocumented persons to the Philippines. Furthermore, Filipino communities are very active in the effort to assist those who are undocumented.154 Some of this information is corroborated by a 2017 Discussion Paper on Undocumented Children of Overseas Filipinos.155 For example, according to this report, Embassy Officials shared that: “In June 2013, Ambassador Ezzedin Tago met with the Deputy Undersecretary of the Saudi Ministry of Interior to discuss several issues, including mothers-and-children cases. The meeting resulted in the creation of an interagency committee consisting of the Ministry of Interior and the General Directorate for Passports (Immigration Office – Jawazat) whose function was to confirm the biological relationship of the mother and the child, and once proven, their exit visas will be processed. Although DNA testing had been used before for a small number of cases… this was the first time that such a mechanism was made available to a huge group and the entire process was expedited.” The above report documented that as of 28 November 2013, 345 mothers and their 426 children were granted exit visas and repatriated by the Philippines government from the “first batch” for DNA testing. The report also noted that the Embassy used advisories to call on all mothers with undocumented children to avail themselves of the procedure, but that This was reported during initial consultations with Social Welfare Attachés stationed in the Gulf countries, and is corroborated by a 2017 Discussion Paper on Undocumented Children of Overseas Filipinos, Submitted to the Council for the Welfare of Children by Maria Caridad H. Tarroja. 153 Excerpt from Initial Consultations with Social Welfare Attachés and the Department of Social Welfare and Development 17 June 2020. 154 Maria Caridad H. Tarroja, Discussion Paper on Undocumented Children of Overseas Filipinos in, Submitted to the Council for the Welfare of Children, 2017. 155 UNHCR / April 2021 49