Addis Abeba — The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has warned that only 12 percent of the 576,000 refugee children in Ethiopia have been registered in the country's vital registration system, leaving the majority exposed to "severe protection risks and potential statelessness."

"The lack of proper documentation severely limits access to essential services and legal protection for these vulnerable children," UNHCR stated in its latest situational report, noting that the majority of refugee children remain unregistered as of August 2024.

According to the agency, resource constraints, inadequate infrastructure, and ongoing security challenges in the Oromia, Tigray, and Amhara regions have significantly hindered registration efforts. The COVID-19 pandemic further complicated the process by creating backlogs in registration.

Although Ethiopia has established legal frameworks through the 2017 Vital Events Registration Proclamation and the 2019 Refugee Proclamation to ensure equal treatment in registration processes, implementation remains limited, especially in the Afar and Assosa regions, UNHCR noted.

To address these challenges, the Ethiopian government, through its Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS), previously announced an initiative to integrate refugees and asylum seekers into the national digital ID system.

The program involves issuing digital refugee ID cards with a unique "Fayda" identification number provided by the National ID Program (NIDP). Using biometric technology, the Fayda number aims to prevent double registration and duplicate ID issuance.

Ethiopia currently hosts more than one million refugees and asylum seekers, including 60,688 new arrivals fleeing the conflict in Sudan since April 2023. The country is also managing 4.4 million internally displaced persons, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as of February 2024.