2019 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 1(1) character’, and have elementary knowledge of Malay. 63 While there is a pathway to citizenship for those who have been living in Malaysia since before its legal existence, there appears to be a large number of persons who are stateless despite their genuine and lengthy connection to the Federation of Malaysia. While this study identified four cases, one NGO identified 12,400 persons of Indian Tamil descent that are stateless despite their link to Malaysia pre-independence. 64 There are two subcategories: those that worked in historical plantations and those that did not. To be clear, this category of stateless persons includes persons who were in Malaysia during British colonial times and their descendants. While there currently are plantations in other parts of Malaysia (for example in Sabah) that employ migrant workers, these contemporary plantation workers and their descendants (who may be stateless) do not fall within this category. 1 Persons Working in Historical Plantations During Colonial Times and Their Descendants Recent mapping done by UNHCR and an NGO working on eradicating statelessness amongst those of Indian descent has identified a significant Indian Tamil population that has no citizenship in Malaysia. 65 Statelessness in this group is attributed to generations of Indian Tamils living in Malaysia at remote, rural plantations. 66 Large groups of Indian Tamil persons came to Malaysia before Malaysia gained independence and worked in plantations where there was no need for identification or birth registration. 67 Plantations were self-contained communities that had employment, schools, health centres, and other amenities. 68 People would marry and go on with life without the need for formal documentation on plantations. 69 When plantations were shut down, people started moving from rural to urban settings and found themselves confronted with issues in obtaining services, such as education and health services, because they did not have an identification card. 70 In this population, some families have existed in Malaysia over several generations and yet have no documentation to show their citizenship or tie with the country. As part of a registration campaign, the UNHCR and an NGO identified at least 12,400 stateless persons in Malaysia of Indian Tamil descent. This campaign notably assisted 12,000 of those persons to register applications for citizenship to the National Registry Department resulting in 2,300 persons acquiring and confirming nationality. Only 12 per cent of cases have been resolved successfully meaning that approximately 9,700 persons are still awaiting a decision on their registration of citizenship. The Malaysian 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 ibid ss 16, 16A. Appendix Table 3, Interview with 12NGO. Appendix Table 3, Interview with 1NGO; Appendix Table 3, Interview with 4NG. See also United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, ‘Ending Statelessness in Malaysia’ <http://www.unhcr.org/en-my/ending-statelessness-in-malaysia.html>. Appendix Table 3, Interview with 1NGO; Appendix Table 3, Interview with 4NGO. ibid. ibid. Appendix Table 3, Interview with 6NGO. ibid. 108