Birth Registration and Consular Assistance in Egypt and Morocco 21 inquiry, seeking witness testimony from those who were present at the birth; and if registration is attempted more than 30 days from the date of birth, a family judge must establish the identity of the parents and their connection to the child. The research also documented cases where health facilities refused to issue a birth notification to a parent, as a way of creating pressure for medical bills to be paid—a practice that is completely illegal. In Egypt, if there is no birth notification a parent must go to the nearest health office and seek a doctor or other official to attend the place where the birth took place, in order to verify the facts and write a certificate with the same information as would appear in a birth notification. After more than 15 days, the parents must go together to the health office with the child, for an estimate of the child’s age and the issue of a declaration of paternity. The health office should then report the birth incident to the civil registry department. Other Barriers: Lack of Information, Costs, and Fear In both Egypt and Morocco, migrants and refugees lacked understanding of the procedures to register their children’s births or obtain other documents. They also lacked information about the (limited) legal assistance available to refugees supported in both countries by UNHCR. Language barriers were significant; especially in Egypt for those who did not speak Arabic, and in Morocco among those from anglophone countries. There were some parents who believed that the notification of birth from the hospital was sufficient, not realising that it had no legal effect without formal registration. My son’s passport has expired. He wants to register his son who is now 10 months old but he cannot do so with an expired passport. He cannot renew it because he cannot afford the cost of renewing a passport. — Syrian From when I wake up, I have to think about feeding my children, finding shelter, a job, keeping them from the cold. Registering their births is not a priority for me… even if registered who is going to look after them? — Ivorian In Morocco, the fear of being identified as in irregular status and expelled by the Moroccan authorities held some back from registering a birth. Some believed that the fact that they had been rejected for regularisation meant that they could not access birth registration for their children. Even though birth registration is supposed to be free in both countries, for some parents birth registration for a child was simply not a priority among the many other challenges of a precarious daily existence. Invisible costs included transport and lost income from other activities, and above all the costs of obtaining the supporting documents required. Time Periods and Late Registration Given all these challenges, the time period for registration of births was also a barrier. Migrants and refugees interviewed in Morocco were unanimous that the 30 day period for registration of a birth was too short before the late registration procedure before a judge was required. In Egypt, registration is supposed to take place within 15 days of the birth, an even more unreasonable requirement.