PLOS ONE Undocumented: An examination of legal identity and education provision for children in Malaysia the (i) indigenous and native people in the interior areas particularly in East Malaysia and the (ii) ethnic Indians in plantation estates, born or resident in Malaya since pre-independence, therefore eligible for Malaysian citizenship, but were unable to do so due to multigenerational historical marginalisation [38]. (2) Claim to citizenship of other countries. Migrants including regular or irregular economic migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers may register the births of their children born in Malaysia and obtain a birth certificate that classifies them as “non-citizens”. However, birth registration does not confer citizenship entitlements, as Jus Soli (‘citizenship by birth’) is not practised in Malaysia. Migrant parents may neglect to register their child’s birth as they are unaware that they are entitled to do so in Malaysia. More importantly, the fear of being detected by authorities may deter birth registration, as Malaysian immigration laws do not allow low-wage economic migrants to marry or have families in Malaysia. The lack of birth registration puts children at risk of statelessness, as a birth certificate provides proof of where a person was born and parentage–key information necessary to establish citizenship in any country. Children born in Malaysia would need to undergo citizenship verification at their embassies, to obtain citizenship of their home countries. For non-Malaysian children, being undocumented goes beyond citizenship issues to encompass their legal right to stay in Malaysia. This also applies to refugee and asylum-seeking children who may already have citizenship from their home country, but do not have legal status in Malaysia as the state is non-signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol [12]. (3) Undetermined citizenship. Persons with undetermined citizenship includes foundlings or children abandoned at birth with no documents. By law, Article 19B of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution states that “any newborn child found exposed in any place shall be presumed, until contrary as shown, to have been born in that place to a mother permanently resident there”. In practice, foundlings are given temporary residence status (MyKas) that is renewable every five years, but only if they are registered by the Department of Social Welfare. Furthermore, Article 14(1)(b), Section 2(3) of the Federal Constitution also states that a “child born in Malaysia who is not born the citizen of another country and who cannot acquire citizenship of another country within 12 months is a Malaysian citizen” [39]. However, this is not being implemented for foundlings. Foundlings have difficulty with birth registration as this requires two witnesses to prove their parent’s identity and place of birth. In these circumstances, registration of birth would need approval from the Minister of Home Affairs and could take up to five years, further complicating citizenship application. In cases of adoption, adoptive parents are unable to pass their citizenship on to adopted children. Both the Registration of Adoptions Act 1952 (Muslim) and the Adoption Act 1952 (Non-Muslims) are silent on the question of citizenship of adopted children. (4) No citizenship ties with any country. Only children without claim to citizenship of any country are considered truly “stateless”. The stateless groups in Malaysia are the Bajau Laut, a seminomadic seafaring tribe from Sabah, East Malaysia, and the Rohingya people who are also refugees fleeing persecution from Myanmar. Both groups have faced generations of marginalisation and stigma. Refugees and asylum-seekers in Peninsular Malaysia. Refugees are persons forced to flee their country of origin because of persecution, war or violence and are unable or unwilling to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution [40]. Asylum-seekers are individuals seeking international protection, but whose refugee status has yet to be determined [41]. As of August 2021, 179,390 refugees and asylum-seekers were registered with UNHCR in Malaysia [42]. The majority were Rohingya (57%), Chin (13%), and other ethnic groups (16%) PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263404 February 2, 2022 7 / 26