child may be unable to establish the nationality of his or her parents should there be the need to do so at a later date, if the child grows up outside the country “of origin” without good knowledge of the languages and other identifying characteristics of that country; nor to establish a right to the nationality of the country where he or she is born, even if the nationality law of that country allows it. Some alleged “Burkinabè” arriving in Burkina Faso from Côte d’Ivoire, the country of their birth and upbringing, have found it difficult to obtain Burkina papers on their “return” to the country of origin of their parents or grandparents, even outside a situation of crisis. For example, a student interviewed by academic researchers who had been born in Abidjan in 1978, of a father born in Burkina Faso and a mother of Burkinabè origin born in Côte d’Ivoire, arrived in Burkina Faso in 1992 by train. He found that establishing a certificate of nationality was not at all easy, because his mother had been born in Cote d’Ivoire (though this should not have caused any problem in law).182 Most recently, this trap is illustrated by the situation of a number of people fleeing the violence in the Central African Republic during 2014 to “return” to countries of origin of a parent or grandparent where connections are by now very weak. Since they are travelling from a country outside the ECOWAS space their need for documents is greater than for individuals who are clearly “West African” even if their legal connection to one or other West African state is not established beyond doubt. These individuals can find themselves in a protection gap between international agencies: if they are nationals of the country where they now find themselves, then they are not refugees or asylum seekers; IOM can only assist with voluntary return to a country that accepts them as its nationals (or that agrees to readmit them as long-term residents or for humanitarian reasons); but some cannot obtain documentation of nationality either of the country where they are now resident or of the Central African Republic. 182 Interview with « Dabiré » in Florence Boyer & Eric Lanoue, “De retour de Côte d’Ivoire: Migrants Burkinabe à Ouagadougou" in Florence Boyer and Daniel Delaunay (eds.) Peuplement de Ouagadougou et développement urbain : rapport provisoire, Ouagadougou (BKF), Paris : IRD, Université Paris 1, 2009. 55