PLOS ONE Undocumented: An examination of legal identity and education provision for children in Malaysia The Bajau Laut people are largely unable to speak the national language (Bahasa Malaysia) and instead use their own distinct language (Bajau or Samal) and hold firmly to the traditional customs, rituals, and beliefs. Due to increasing security and environmental restrictions, the Bajau Laut people are increasingly forced to abandon their traditional, semi-nomadic lifestyle and marine-based income. While traditionally living in houseboats, many now live on wooden stilt houses built over the sea, without access to clean water and electricity. Being stateless and without legal identity documents, the Bajau Laut people are excluded from state-provided education and healthcare services. Particularly marginalised, they are stuck in an intergenerational cycle of poverty, are excluded from formal employment, and are frequently engaged in begging and glue-sniffing [56,67,68]. (4) Undocumented indigenous people in the interior. The indigenous peoples of Malaysia (collectively known as the Orang Asal), were estimated at around 13.7% of the country’s population in 2018. Diverse indigenous ethnic groups form a substantial proportion of the population in Sabah and Sarawak. Sarawak’s indigenous population (the Dayak or Orang Ulu) constitutes 71% (2 million) of Sarawak’s population, while the indigenous people (natives or Anak Negeri) make up 59% (2.3 million) of the Sabah’s population. In contrast, the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia (Orang Asli) are a minority group of 0.7%(198,000) of the population [69,70]. The indigenous people who generally live in the remote, interior regions are at risk of statelessness due to untimely registration of births. Factors that contribute to the risk of statelessness, include (1) the financial costs and geographical difficulties traveling to the National Registration Department usually located in towns, (2) the lack of awareness of the parents on registering births, (3) traditional and customary marriages not recognised by the law, and (4) home births. The border communities face additional challenges associated with cross border migration and marriage with non-citizens, where children born only have citizenship if the mother is a citizen. To help resolve documentation issues in the interior regions, the Sabah state government runs a mobile court, where village heads serve as witnesses for citizenship applications by confirming that a family has stayed in their village for several generations. Interviewees commented that resolving documentation issues among locals from the interior is more straightforward, compared to the undocumented people of non-citizen origin or the Bajau Laut community. Education provision for undocumented children Prior to 1990s, non-citizen children were able to enter public schools on a case-to-case basis through the discretion of the school heads. Subsequent policy changes in 1990s, imposed annual fees for non-citizen children and more stringent identity document requirements for school entry, making it difficult for undocumented and non-citizen children to enter public schools. In Malaysia, education provision is governed by the Education Act 1996 (Act 550). The 2002 amendment of the Education Act made 6 years of primary education compulsory for all Malaysian citizens aged from 6 to 12 years, without mention of non-citizen children [71]. Nevertheless, the government has permitted the establishment of an informal or alternative education system, through learning centres run by NGOs and other stakeholders. The National Education Policy of 2017 states that primary education is compulsory for all children aged 6 to 12 years, and this includes non-citizens. Also, the 2018 ‘Zero Reject Policy’ allows poorly documented children of Malaysian parents entry into public schools on the condition that the children have initiated citizenship applications. See Fig 3 for the timeline of the PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263404 February 2, 2022 11 / 26