Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2019 1(1) 2L represents clients who had a child before they were married and assisted them in obtaining declaration of legitimacy. In one case, she explained the father was a Malaysian citizen of Indian ethnicity and the mother was a Thai citizen. Even after the declaration for legitimacy was provided, the application for citizenship has been pending for four years. 2L reported that the marriage is on the rocks as the stress of the child’s situation is affecting everyone in the family emotionally. 109 E Indigenous Persons This study did identify two instances of statelessness that affected Indigenous people. One paralegal detailed how he traveled to Sarawak for six months to provide paralegal assistance for 150 Iban people to obtain identity cards. 110 He described having to take a bus and then boat to reach this population and that the reason why such a large group of people were stateless was because of their remote rural location, their lack of understanding of the need or importance of obtaining citizenship and resulting identification to obtain services, and also because sometimes village chiefs refused to sign documentation to attest the individuals were people living in the particular village, refusing to acknowledge the need to be part of such systems. The study recognises a gap in knowledge when it comes to the various Indigenous persons that may be stateless in Malaysia and future research projects in this area are encouraged. This particular study did not delve deeply into investigating how pervasive statelessness is within all the Indigenous groups in Malaysia. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this exploratory study, it is important to acknowledge that this category of stateless persons, like the above categories, also has genuine and effective links to Malaysia by virtue of a generational and long-standing existence and residence within the country. The Federal Constitution acknowledges the special rights attached to Indigenous persons in Malaysia. While Indigenous persons may be stateless due to the same reasons identified above (such as lack of documentation), it is important to recognise Indigenous persons as a separate category because, as ethnic minorities living in isolated areas of Malaysia, they have the added barrier of a lack of access to services that would allow them to potentially access citizenship. F Refugees and Children of Migrant Workers This study also identified eight cases dealing with stateless migrants that have come to Malaysia either as foreign workers or as refugees. It is important to recognise that not all refugees or migrants are stateless, and this study was occupied with only those that were stateless. 109 Appendix Table 3, Interview with 4L. 110 Appendix Table 3, Interview with 2PL. 118