Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/03 A few of the affected were able to obtain the recognition of their Chilean nationality through claims filed under article 12 of the Constitution, which provides this remedy for anyone denied or deprived of nationality by administrative acts or resolutions. Yet, financial hardship, geographical distance, lack of access to legal counsel and unfamiliarity with the consequences of CITA registration kept court actions to a minimum. From January 2008 to July 2013, only 13 such claims were adjudicated25. Others obtained nationality through administrative channels, but as with nationality claims, lack of means, scant information and an inability to obtain supporting documents kept many from using this mechanism. 4. The Legal Route: Nationality Claims as a Collective Remedy for Individual Rights Violations As noted, the UAH Immigration Law Clinic, the UDP Immigration and Refugee Law Clinic and the Jesuit Migrant Service joined forces to address the plight of CTF wrongly denied nationality at birth. While both law clinics had successfully argued nationality claims in the past, this time the volume and massive nature of the violations called for a broader, more comprehensive strategy that demanded extensive prior fieldwork with affected communities. Per the report obtained from the Civil Registry through an access to information request at the start of the project, in October 2014, 2,843 people remained registered as CTF in Chile. According to the same source, almost half of them (1,340) lived in the northern regions of Tarapacá and Arica-Parinacota. A sizable share lived in the Azapa Valley and rural Tarapacá. This being the case, and with support from the local Jesuit Migrant Service, local residents, and public school staff, in the second half of 2015 members of the three above mentioned organisations spent two weeks traveling the Azapa Valley and the towns of Huara, Pozo Almonte, Pica and Colchane in the backcountry of Tarapacá. At the time the decision to travel was made, the organisations did not expect to be able to locate more than 50 CTF-registered children. Yet, by the time the two weeks of fieldwork with affected communities drew to a close, a total of 167 cases had been documented. The process was anything but straightforward. Door-to-door searches had to be conducted in Tarapacá, as most home addresses on record with the Civil Registry dated back to the time of first registration. Another major barrier soon became evident. For reasons that range from overcrowding, poor sanitation and overpopulation to seeking work elsewhere, safety issues, and family reunification, moving around was a key trait of the migrant population. With many home addresses dating back years, locating some children became especially challenging. This prompted the team to enlist the assistance of local school staff. The resulting strategic partnerships were key, as schoolteachers and administrators were well acquainted with the plight of children denied nationality and played a key role in contacting and coordinating with parents. As birth certificates are required for enrolment, schools had them on file. Indeed, one of the first tasks was to pore over thousands of certificates that helped identify the vast majority of cases in the area. Meetings with affected parents quickly revealed that they were largely unaware of the August 2014 reinterpretation of nationality acquisition requirements and of their right to request that birth records be amended accordingly. The research team thus apprised them of their right to institute proceedings to secure recognition of their children’s nationality. The vast majority of those interviewed in the field —parents of children registered as CTF and young adults still unable to obtain the recognition of their 25 Rodriguez, Macarena, Nacionalidad en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Suprema, Colecciones Jurídicas de la División de Estudios de la Corte Suprema 5