My Children Without Identity: Half of the Children in Marib’s Camps Have No Birth Certificates
– Ruqayya Ali
In a torn tent in Al-Naseem Camp, Umm Mohammed, displaced for more than four years, sits trying to create warmth for her children amid the cold of displacement. Yet, her real pain isn’t the tent—it’s her children’s uncertain future. They have no birth certificates, no education, no official identity.
“I lost all my documents while moving from one place to another because of the war,” says Umm Mohammed as she looks at her three children. “Even my husband’s papers are gone. Now I can’t obtain birth certificates for my children. Mohammed is ten and has never been to school, Rakan is six, and Sawsan is four. They are all at risk of ignorance and loss.”
When Umm Mohammed tried to visit the Civil Registry Office to get birth certificates for her children, she was shocked to be asked for her national ID card — something she no longer has. “I fear my children will grow up without education or a future,” she says, gazing at her child who doesn’t even know his own name on any official paper.
Additional Challenges Facing Children in Camps
Umm Mohammed’s story is far from unique. According to Kahlan Al-Damasi, director of Al-Kuwait Camp in the Al-Naseem sector, more than 80% of the camp’s children have no birth certificates, depriving hundreds of them of the right to attend school.
He added that during the 2023–2024 school year, a survey found that over 350 children from 4,800 families were unable to obtain birth certificates.
Al-Damasi explained that the main reasons include the distance between the camps and civil registry offices, the lack of governmental or humanitarian initiatives to facilitate birth registration, and the difficult economic conditions that prevent families from traveling to cities or paying the required fees for official documents.
Numbers Reveal the Scale of a National Crisis
A report issued by the Marib Office of Planning and International Cooperation reveals that 47% of children in displacement camps lack birth certificates, while the Executive Unit for IDP Camp Management confirms that over 11,000 displaced children are out of school due to the absence of official documents.
Ahmad Al-Qurashi, head of the Siyaj Organization for Child Protection, said that this issue extends far beyond Marib—it is a national crisis worsened by war and internal displacement.
He noted that estimates indicate 30% to 50% of Yemenis lack official birth certificates, especially in rural and conflict-affected areas. The absence of these documents deprives children of education and healthcare and makes them more vulnerable to child recruitment or early marriage.
Al-Qurashi called for urgent and exceptional measures to register children in schools, such as accepting a copy of a guardian’s ID card, to prevent any child from being denied their right to education or medical treatment.
A Birth Certificate: A Document of Life, Not Just a Piece of Paper
As this dire reality persists, the solution lies in urgent action by authorities and humanitarian organizations to open mobile registration centers in displacement camps and adopt exceptional procedures that allow the registration of children even without their parents’ documents. This would safeguard their rights to education, healthcare, and legal protection.
In Conclusion
In the displacement camps, children run and play barefoot, unaware of the uncertain future awaiting them. Hope remains that government authorities and international organizations will act to guarantee their basic rights — to identity, protection, and education.
