A/HRC/11/7 page 18 trafficked mothers are in police custody or detention centres as a result of police or immigration raids, as highlighted by the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (A/HRC/7/8). 71. The second area in which States need to enhance protection concerns children from a migrant background. Children in this category do not necessarily fall into the definition of migrant children, but they are affected by the immigration background of their parents or family members. Evidence suggests that States should enhance their efforts to address, from a rights-based perspective, a number of issues affecting children falling into this category; for example, the European Commission found that factors lying behind discrimination in education may apply to subsequent generations of migrants, including in some instances those already naturalized.43 72. The protection of migrant children in host countries has been addressed by the Special Rapporteur in his communications44 and country visits,45 in which he identified irregular migration and its criminalization as situations causing him deep concern in relation to the effective protection of migrant children. When criminalized, irregular migration has proven to be a deterrent, for example, for the child’s birth registration, because irregular or undocumented migrants usually fear imprisonment and/or deportation and therefore try to avoid all contact with local authorities.46 Barriers to birth registration and/or its denial have serious consequences for the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to be recognized as a person before the law.47 Furthermore, the State should prevent situations of statelessness.48 43 Green paper on migration and mobility: challenges and opportunities for EU education systems, Brussels, 2008, para. 2. 44 See E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.1, E/CN.4/2006/73/Add.1, A/HRC/7/12/Add.2 and A/HRC/11/7/Add.1. 45 See E/CN.4/2003/85/Add.2, A/HRC/11/7/Add.2, A/HRC/11/7/Add.3, E.CN.4/2006/73/Add.2, E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.3, E/CN.4/2004/76/Add.2, E/CN.4/2002/94/Add.1, A/HRC/7/12/Add.2 and E/CN.4/2003/85/Add.3/Corr.1. 46 No specific information is available on the number of children who may be unregistered for reasons associated with the migration status of their parents, extended family members, legal guardians or caregivers. UNICEF has estimated that approximately 48 million child births are unrecorded each year. See “The rights’ start to life: A statistical analysis of birth registration”, UNICEF, 2005. 47 In the case of The Yean and Bosico children v. Dominican Republic, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in a judgement of 8 September 2005, referred, inter alia, to the State obligation to guarantee the right of the child to birth registration, which may under certain circumstances include non-national children. 48 See Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, art. 1.