2019 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 1(1) adopted children. Reported case law also reveals stateless cases coming to the courts dealing with abandoned and adopted children. 83 A number of persons working with NGOs in Malaysia work with abandoned children. Two NGOs directly provide services for abandoned children. One interviewee from one of the NGOs noted that 90 percent of the hundreds of cases of abandoned children that came to her in the last decade are stateless. 84 Statelessness is persistent among abandoned children or ‘foundlings’ in Malaysia because they often come to NGOs without any documentation or information about their background. 85 A related but overlapping category with abandoned children is adopted children. Some abandoned children are adopted by persons in Malaysia. A stateless child who is adopted by Malaysian parents does not always obtain citizenship automatically. 86 A few stateless adopted children shared their stories with me. 3S is a 21-year-old who was born in Malaysia and was adopted by two Malaysian citizens. She told me she does not know anything about her biological parents other than they may be Filipino. 3S said she realised she was stateless when she was 12 years old and could not get an identity card. She applied for citizenship then and was rejected. 3S applied for citizenship again when she was 13 after being re-issued a birth certificate that stated she was not a citizen. This application took 8 years to reach a decision. 3S told me after my first interview with her that she received a negative decision. 87 5S was born in Malaysia and was adopted by Chinese parents who are also Malaysian citizens. 5S stated that the only thing she knows about her biological mother is that she is Filipino. She does not know where her mother is or any information regarding her father. 5S learned she was stateless when her mother accompanied her to the registration office at the age of 12 to obtain her identity card. The Malay officer commented that she did not look like her Chinese mother and told her that her birth certificate was fraudulent. The officer told 5S that she needed to be properly adopted. 5S’s parents did go through the adoption process and 5S was issued a new birth certificate as a result, but the birth certificate stated she had no citizenship. 5S said she applied three times for 83 84 85 86 87 Yu Sheng Meng (A Child Represented by His Litigator, Yu Meng Queng) v Ketua Pengarah Pendaftaran Negara & Ors [2016] 7 MLJ 628 (Asmabi Mohamad J) (High Court of Malaya); Foo Toon Aik (Suing on His Own behalf and as Representative of Foo Shi Wen, Child) v Ketua Pendaftar Kelahiran dan Kematian, Malaysia [2012] 9 MLJ 573 (Rohana Yusof J) (High Court of Malaya); Lee Chin Pon & Anor v Registrar-General of Births and Deaths, Malaysia (Unreported, Application for Judicial Review No R1-25-343-08, High Court of Malaya, 16 December 2009); Leong Peng Kheong & Anor v Registrar-General of Births and Deaths, Malaysia (Unreported, Application for Judicial Review No 25-10205/2014 and 25-103-5/2014, High Court of Malaya, 29 July 2015); Than Siew Beng & Anor v Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara & Ors [2015] MLJU 2059 (Unreported, High Court of Malaya); Than Siew Beng & Anor v Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara & Ors [2017] MLJ 662 (David Wong, Badariah Sahamid and Harmindar Singh JJCA) (Court of Appeal); Chin Kooi Nah (Suing by Herself and as Next of Kin to Chin Jia Nee, An Infant) v Pendaftar Besar Kelahiran dan Kematian, Malaysia [2016] 7 MLJ 712 (Collin Sequerah JC) (High Court of Malaya); Pendaftar Besar Kelahiran dan Kematian, Malaysia v Pang Wee See [2017] 3 MLJ 308 (Abang Iskandar, Zamani A Rahim and Zaleha Yusof JJCA) (Court of Appeal). Appendix Table 3, Interview with 10NGO. Appendix Table 3, Interview with 8NGO. Appendix Table 3, Interview with 1L; Appendix Table 3, Interview with 5L. Appendix Table 2, Interview with 3S. 112