 UNDERSTANDING STATELESSNESS IN THE SYRIA REFUGEE CONTEXT INTRODUCTION 1 “My biggest fear is that my children will never see their country. If they cannot prove that they are Syrian, they may never be allowed back. I want them to be Syrian; I want them to be able to go back.”1 When Fakhirya asks her eldest son, now four, where he comes from, he smiles and says “Dar’a”. He has never been to Dar’a before, he was born a refugee in Jordan, but he believes that is where his Syrian father is, and that is where he will eventually grow up. A mother of three living in a small apartment in Irbid, Jordan, Fakhriya is worried about her children for many reasons. They have been displaced, removed from everything they know, and they are faced with many of the problems that challenge a refugee family. In addition to these challenges, her children are not registered, they have no documents, and she has no idea where their father is. She worries her children will remain unregistered, without any documents. She worries that she will eventually be unable to prove that her children are Syrian nationals.2 1 2 10 RESEARCH REPORT Interview with Fakhriya, Irbid Jordan, July 2016. All names in this report have been changed. Ibid.