ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that stateless children, in virtue of their profound vulnerability, are entitled to rapid access to the regularisation of their status, in the form of easy access to citizenship. It proposes that among the rights stateless children possess is the right to be with their parents or closest living family. The chapter describes that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has acknowledged the particularly vulnerable status of children, in light of which it has articulated a robust set of human rights that are particular to children. It examines the state responsible for protecting their rights may be unclear, or it may be more politically difficult to assert or demonstrate. The chapter considers and responds to few of them here: children whose parents are irregular migrants can be cared for by non-parental legal guardians, and it is therefore legitimate to expel irregular migrant parents in the service of border enforcement.
