. Identification re ention and reduction o state essness Common protection issues faced by stateless persons — difficulties to register births and obtain birth certificates; — lack of identity documentation and, as a result, difficulties to be recognized as a person before the law; — difficulties to legally marry; — limited or no access to education and health care; — lack of access to the labour market; — limits on property ownership; — difficulties to enter into contracts, obtain business licenses or open bank accounts; — non-recognition of the right to reside in one’s own country, resulting in risk of detention and/or expulsion; — limitations on freedom of movement, restricting the ability to leave and return to the country of residency, and also sometimes restricting the ability to move freely within the country; — repeated and prolonged detention, particularly in a migratory context and where the country of origin refuses to allow return; — heightened risk of exploitation, trafficking, and sexual and genderbased violence. Stateless children are particularly vulnerable and their problems are often invisible to authorities, as they do not have a voice to draw attention to their plight. In 2015, to show what it means for children and young people to be stateless, UNHCR undertook consultations in seven countries focusing on this particular group. The ensuing report, I am here, I Belong: The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness highlights how not being recognized as a national of any country can create insurmountable barriers to education and adequate health care, and stifle job prospects for children and youth. It revealed the devastating psychological toll of statelessness and its serious ramifications not only for young people, whose whole futures are before them, but also for their families, communities and countries.102 73