Mapping Children on the Move within Africa are forced to learn a new culture, language and try to make friends.384 Further, the social services of the transit country or destination may not be equipped to address their specific needs or the children may not be aware of the availability of the services.385 Children on the move also face challenge of lack of documentation. This problem arises sometimes because often times the states of origin and destination, do not have proper and systematic systems of birth registration. For instance, in Southern Africa a study commissioned by IOM indicated that states in the region only have sporadic practice of birth registration and children on the move are left mostly without having any form of documentation.386 In South Africa, for instance, there are cases where children’s refugee status could not be determined for lack of relevant documents, including certificate of birth registration.387 Generally, children on the move who lack documentation face a situation of grave vulnerability because regularizing their migration and access to social services is difficult in the state of transit or destination.388 Similarly, in some North African countries, parents of newborns who are on the move often face difficulties in acquiring valid birth certificates, which has far-reaching consequences in terms of the basic human rights of children on the move. In the case of Libya, this has been blamed on the internal situation in the country and the lack of adequate administrative structure. In Tunisia and Morocco this has been attributed to the lack of the legal framework to provide valid certificates for children not born to nationals.389 In West Africa, children of refugees are not entirely guaranteed birth registration.390 For instance although in Guinea which used to host thousands of refugees from Liberia, Sierra Leone and more recently Cote d’Ivoire, birth registration is organized well in refugee camps, persons who remained in former refugee camps, with no refugee status are reported to have been cut off from all contacts with government, including registration of new births.391 Also, former refugees who live in urban areas face challenges in registering their children.392 Legal parentage is said to be the ‘gateway through which many of the rights of children flow’. This is one of the reasons why birth registration has been recognised as a ‘critical first step’ in ensuring the rights of children on the move. As mentioned above, many children on the move lack birth registration because of weak civil registration systems in their countries of origin as well as discrimination and barriers to registration. Movement without proper documentation, children may later face real difficulties in trying to establish a link with their home country. In addition, children born outside their parents’ home country in an irregular situation may also encounter barriers in trying to acquire the nationality of their parents, as well as accessing birth registration and nationality in the country of their birth. This is because some States refuse to register the children of non-nationals or may require a period of legal residence in order to do so, which often 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 As above p18. As above. IOM, Study on Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe 2017 p 38. J Sloth-Nielsen & M Ackermann, ‘Unaccompanied and Separated Foreign Children in the Care System in the Western Cape – A Socio-Legal Study’ PER / PELJ 2016(19) - DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2016/v19i0a1207 p 5. Progress Report of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, Global Issue of Unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents and human rights A/HRC/33/53 16 August 2016 para 59. See UNHCR in Libya, UN Committee on the rights of the child recommendations to Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Bronwen Manby, Nationality, Migration and Statelessness in West Africa A study for UNHCR and IOM June 2015 P 34. As above. As above. 71