PLOS ONE Undocumented: An examination of legal identity and education provision for children in Malaysia Study participants also informed that different refugee communities tend to be treated differently in Malaysia and this might contribute to their experiences in seeking education and accessing services in Malaysia. ‘In Malaysia, which group of refugees you are [part of] also determines how you are being treated, right? So, again, this is whole layers and levels. Even [amongst] refugees, you will find, like say the Bosnians or Syrians, may be treated more favourably. And this is not the ideal at all. Even when we say more favourably, it doesn’t mean that they can work here. In terms of the stigma—there’s less stigma for these groups than say for Rohingya for example.’ POL-02 Undocumented children in Sabah. The state of Sabah in East Malaysia is unique due to porous national borders, intergenerational cross-border migration with the neighbouring Philippines and Indonesia, and ongoing disputes with the Philippines government regarding territorial claims in Sabah [48,49]. The Department of Statistics Malaysia estimated in 2021 more than a quarter of the population of Sabah are non-citizens (995,400), of which about 250,000 are children aged from 0 to 19 years [50]. The subgroups at risk of educational exclusion include the children of (1) poorly documented Filipino migrants, (2) regular and irregular economic migrants from Indonesia, (3) stateless, semi-nomadic Bajau Laut tribes and (4) undocumented local people in interior regions who face geographical barriers to birth registration. While these groups have different levels of marginalisation and privilege because of their identity and entitlements, the long history of mixed marriages between the migrant groups from the Philippines and Indonesia and local communities have blurred boundaries, making the migration situation complex. Interviewees suggested that issues concerning children’s educational exclusion were less dire in the neighbouring state of Sarawak, where education exclusion was exclusively among undocumented communities in the interior bordering Kalimantan, Indonesia. (1) Poorly documented Filipino migrants. Sabah hosts many poorly documented migrants whose ancestry can be traced back to the Southern Philippines. Three migration waves from the Southern Philippines are described: (i) the first wave was the traditional and historic free movement of the coastal peoples that occurred since before the formation of Malaysia in 1963, (ii) the second wave was driven by the conflict in Southern Philippines in the 1970s, and (iii) the third wave was associated with economic migration in response to Sabah’s post-1990s economic development policies, alongside labour migration from Indonesia [51]. They have since settled in Malaysia for several generations, many of whom were born and raised in Sabah and no longer have contemporary social ties in the Philippines. Multiple generations of intermarriages and poor documentation obscure the pathways to citizenship and increase their risk of statelessness [52]. In 2016, it was estimated that there were 136,055 Filipino migrants in Sabah, and around 50,000 held IMM13 visas issued in the 1980s [53]. We found that the local Sabah people do not refer to the Filipino community as “refugees” but as the “undocumented” or “stateless” persons in Sabah. They are no longer recognised as refugees under UNCHR’s operation in Malaysia [54]. And yet, initially, those fleeing conflicts were given an IMM13 refugee visa, a special document produced under Form 16 of the Malaysian Immigration Act [11] that confers temporary rights to stay, work and access public education [55]. However, these rights have gradually been eroded. The IMM13 visas were issued in the 1980s to the male head of the family to include the dependent wife and children. Subsequent generations did not receive the IMM13 visa. Also, many allowed the visas to lapse, as they were unaware that IMM13 visas needed annual renewal or were unable to pay the renewal fees. In addition, the issuance of two other identity documents that do not confer citizenship benefits (Kad Burung-burung issued in the 1980s PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263404 February 2, 2022 9 / 26