Homegrown Statelessness in Malaysia widely understood that the reason why the Filipinos in Sabah in the 1980s and the Rohingya are allowed to be recognised as refugees is because they are Muslim. 124 Malaysia has made some positive statements with its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (‘ASEAN’) counterparts supporting Rohingya refugees and allowed the UNHCR to register them as refugees. However, other refugee groups may not eligible for registration with the UNHCR and the issue of a durable solution for any refugee within Malaysia does not appear to be an option. 125 Thus, other persons, who may be stateless, may not be able to access refugee protection. Further, despite the conferral of refugee status, there is no pathway for permanent residence or citizenship. One Rohingya woman I listened to in a talk described how she had lived in Malaysia for over 20 years and still has no hope of obtaining citizenship. 126 G Intersection of Factors It is important to note that for some stateless persons, they may encounter their status as stateless in a multitude of ways or via an intersection of factors. For the purposes of this study, where there was a cause of statelessness attributed to a reason other than lack of documentation, that reason was deemed the primary reason. An example where an intersection exists is with 16S: a 33-year-old woman whose birth in Malaysia outside of a hospital led to the late registration of her birth (14 years later). Her father is a Malaysian citizen but her mother, while born in Malaysia, did not possess a birth certificate or identity card. 16S’s mother was adopted and was unable to acquire any documentation about herself. Due to the lack of documentation, 16S’s parents were unable to get married. 16S is stateless on a few different axes: she is an ‘illegitimate’ child born out of wedlock to a non-citizen, her birth was registered late and her mother did not have the appropriate documentation due to abandonment and adoption. 127 Another example is a case described by 5L that involved two Malaysian citizens adopting a child. The child was adopted through a clinic for a fee. The clinic had provided the adopted parents with the child’s birth certificate that listed the adopted parents as natural parents of the child. When the parents went to the registration office with the child to obtain his identity card, the registration office identified the birth certificate as fraudulent, cancelled the first birth certificate and issued a new one listing the parents as unknown and the child as not a citizen. 5L helped the family do a legal adoption and obtained a new, third birth certificate. While listing the adopted parents, this new birth certificate listed the child as a permanent resident. 5L helped the family judicially review the decision made on the third birth certificate that the child was not a citizen and 124 Allerton, ‘Contested Statelessness in Sabah’ (n 2) 261; Mayuko Tani, ‘ASEAN Aims to Express “Concern” on Rohingya Crisis for First Time’ Nikkei Asian Review (Singapore, 13 November 2018) <https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/ASEAN-aims-toexpress-concern-on-Rohingya-crisis-for-first-time>; RF Dorall, ‘Muslim Refugees in Southeast Asia, the Malaysian Response’ (1988) 1(3) Asian Migration 88. 125 Stephen Dziedzic, ‘ASEAN: Malaysian PM condemns inaction of Aung San Suu Kyi over Rohingya “suffering”’ ABC News (18 March 2018) <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-0318/asean-malaysia-pm-confronts-aung-san-suu-kyi/9560112>. 126 Roundtable on Rohingya in Malaysia: Bridging the Gap Between Aid and Resettlement (Centre for Public Policy Studies, Monash University Malaysia, 6 March 2018) <https://www.monash.edu.my/news-and-events/pages/latest/articles/2018/a-roundtable-onthe-rohingya-in-malaysia>. 127 Appendix Table 2, Interview with 16S. 121