At the launching ceremony of the documentation campaign, Mr Idder Adamou, President of the National Eligibility Commission and Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior, delivers a refugee certificate to a Nigerian family who fled the violence in northern Nigeria. © Arnaud, UNICEF

With smiles on their faces, the first group of men and women received their ID documents on Tuesday, 11 February in Diffa. An estimated 40,000 persons have fled the violence in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States in northeastern Nigeria since May 2013 and sought refuge in neighbouring Niger. Most of them came empty handed just carrying the clothes and a few belongings they could grab.

There are no camps in Diffa region and this displaced population lives across a large stretch of land in 80 to 100 villages along the common border between Nigeria and Niger. They have sought shelter in host families while waiting that aid agencies, such as UNHCR and the Niger Red Cross, build temporary houses for them. The World Food Programme and the ICRC are providing food to this population that has settled in an area that is suffering chronically from dry weather conditions, poor harvests and food deficits.

But something else is also missing in most cases: a document which could identify the bearer. While living in their villages at peacetime most of them did not see the need to get themselves an ID document or a birth certificate for their children. Now, living in another country, next to a civil war zone, the lack of documentation poses a real protection risk: No ID document can mean restrictions in movement or temporary arrest in order to verify the identity of a person.

Unicef has been supporting the regional registry department for some years now, concentrating on local children and the need to provide them with birth certificates. The massive influx of displaced persons has not only overwhelmed the local host but also the administration. Hence, UNHCR has committed itself to help the government in documenting the population: Niger citizens previously living in Nigeria and displaced by the fighting will receive Niger ID-cards and so will the families which host them. Refugees, i.e. citizens from Nigeria, will receive refugee attestations.

The launch ceremony last Tuesday went well but the overall campaign is going to be difficult. There is first of all the lack of birth certificates on which to base the issuance of ID-cards. And then there is in many cases no clarity on the nationality of the person given that people use to marry across the border choosing a spouse of a different nationality than his or her own. Polygamy is also widespread and many women have returned with their children to Niger because their Nigerian husband has either died in the violence or - for the safety of his wife and children- has sent them back to their native Niger. And so it is likely that courts and judges will also be involved to make sure that the displaced population which has lost already so much will not suffer further because of a lack of identity papers.