In Raja, western South Sudan, hundreds of refugee returnees queued to apply for nationality certificates. A mobile team brought generators, a photo printer, laptops, and iris and fingerprint scanners by all-terrain vehicle, registering 182 people on its first day.
Applicants needed a birth certificate or age assessment, photographs, a blood test, a witness to origin and about US$20. Meeting those conditions in a remote area was burdensome.
The line waited for legal belonging connected to school, work, land ownership and voting. Returning home did not finish the journey; a further order remained before the state would recognise that a person belonged there.