MUKHTAR INTERVIEWS The completion of interviews with local mukhtars was the project’s first milestone, laying the groundwork for the surveying phase. 70 Mukhtar full interviews with mukhtars • A total of 149 mukhtars were contacted (out of 210 officially registered in MoIM records), and 70 agreed to doing a full-length interview. The others mostly provided rough estimates on the extent of statelessness or declared that they were not knowledgeable on the issue. • Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown, most interviews were conducted over the phone or WhatsApp, despite poor network coverage and regular disruption to internet service. • This crucial phase enabled the team to collect valuable qualitative information, and identify the most proactive mukhtars, who were able to pinpoint and confirm the main hotspots of statelessness in Akkar. • Interviews also showed that some mukhtars have outdated information and very little knowledge on statelessness, despite stating the contrary. © 2021 Siren Associates. All Rights Reserved.