Syrian refugees who have children in Iraq's Kurdistan region are entitled to apply for official birth certificates from local authorities, but many families don't. Refugee camps are often far away from government buildings in major cities, so many children are left without the most basic documentation. [...] with the country in the fifth year of a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people, the odds of returning home are slim. For infants and toddlers living in refugee camps, the lack of national identity documents doesn't pose immediate problems. "If the situation is prolonged for a very long time, these children would become adults," said Frederic Cussigh, senior field coordinator for the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. According to the U.N., 12,516 Syrian children have been born in Iraq since the beginning of the Syrian crisis.