Birth registration is simply an act of legal recognition of those children by the host country which enables them to have a legal identity. 62. The Committee wishes however to record that birth registration is in many countries essential to the acquisition of a nationality by any person (including refugees and asylum seekers). Birth registration establishes the place of birth and parental affiliation of a child. Since nationality is generally acquired by jus sanguinis (descent) or by jus soli (territory of birth), birth registration will play a crucial role as a documentary proof in establishing either of these ways of acquiring a nationality. 63. The Committee notes that while nationality is normally acquired independently and birth registration in and of itself does not normally confer nationality upon the child concerned, birth registration does constitute a key form of proof of the link between an individual and a State and thereby serves to prevent statelessness. (d) 64. Birth registration and children of undocumented migration status The Committee considers children of undocumented status to fall in any of (at least) the five groups: undocumented children, children born to undocumented parents, children whose migration status became irregular because their parents or caregivers overstayed their residence visas or permits in a given country, children in regular migration status (without necessarily being documented) but whose parents or caregivers are undocumented, or children born to parents whose deportation has been suspended due to circumstances justifiable under international law or international humanitarian law, but have not been issued any documentation. 26 65. The Committee observes that children in undocumented status are very vulnerable for at least the following two reasons. On the one hand, their parents or caregivers are likely to remain hidden due to fear of being arrested if the administrative authority discovers their irregular migration status. On the other hand 26 See Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) Rights of Accompanied Children in an Irregular Situation (UNICEF 2011) 8 available at http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/frc2011/docs/rights-accompanied-children-irregular-situation-PICUM.pdf accessed 22 September 2013. 23