71 AN INTRICATE PROCESS At first glance the process is simple, but practically it is fraught with pitfalls. Obstacles such as uncooperative officials, legal issues, and even theft and deceit, can make this process extremely challenging for MDWs. First, the hospital where the mother gave birth is required to issue a birth certificate. According to respondents, the Rafic Hariri University Hospital has been cooperative on this front, with Médecins Sans Frontières often providing financial assistance on case by case basis. Next, the MDW goes to the mukhtar with 2 Lebanese witnesses to certify that she is a single mother. The mukhtar signs the birth certificate and issues an affidavit stating the she is a single mother raising a child on her own. The MDW then has to get the affidavit certified by a notary, in the presence of the same witnesses. After that, the signed documents must be certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Finally, the MDW gets the document translated by a sworn translator and send them to the relevant embassy, which issues a laissez-passer. The MDW’s documents are then sent to the General Security for them to check her legal records; if they are clean, she is then able to get her plane ticket, go back to her country of origin, and register her child there. However, this seemingly straightforward path is strewn with pitfalls. The vulnerable situation that these women find themselves in makes this last resort close to impossible. For instance, mukhtars or notaries in charge of the paperwork can choose not to cooperate with the MDW, be it for racism, discrimination, or simply because they do not deal with issues related to statelessness. Unexplained delays do occur too, with some paperwork taking several months after having reached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Other recent hurdles are the ongoing strikes within the Lebanese public administration, in light of the current crisis, which are halting most of these processes. Also, in the event an MDW’s legal record is not clean, new legal procedures requiring more money, time and lawyer support would be activated. FGDs revealed cased of mothers being robbed by lawyers or recruitment agencies or others being misled by charitable institutions into thinking that the only alternative is abandoning the child to be registered as an orphan. “ The lawyer took all the money and did nothing. General Security tried to deal with this by telling her to either give the money or work on the child’s registration. She agreed then disappeared. — Ethiopian mother to a non-registered child “ 10 years ago I paid the agency to secure a lawyer. They took everything and told me to leave the country. I had no money to leave, and here I am still here today. — Kenyan mother to a non-registered child © 2023 Siren Associates. All Rights Reserved.