Reaching Stateless, Undocumented and Migrant Communities with the promulgation of discourses explicitly scapegoating migrants as vectors for disease and thereby justifying their arrest and detention. 7 These actions have exacerbated two major problems confronting stakeholders engaged in managing the pandemic: 1) the state’s punitive approach disincentivises contact with mainstream institutions, making it difficult to monitor the status and wellbeing of stateless and undocumented communities during the pandemic; and 2) mainstream public health messaging may not be suitable for stateless and irregular migrant audiences given their specific needs and constraints. Thus, the Government’s protracted exclusion of undocumented and stateless populations has created a blind spot in Malaysia’s pandemic response, heightening non-citizens’ risk of exposure to infection, and undermining the COVID-19 management effort at national and regional levels. Advocates for Non-discrimination and Access to Knowledge (‘ANAK’) — a grassroots community-based organisation founded by author Mary Anne Baltazar to serve stateless, undocumented and migrant communities in Sabah — has been working to address this blind spot. In the wake of the pandemic, ANAK focused on providing emergency humanitarian aid to stateless and irregular migrant communities that had been forsaken by the Malaysian Government. Based on ANAK’s work on the ground, the authors argue that the wellbeing of stateless and other legally vulnerable populations should be a central, rather than a marginal, priority in any effective COVID-19 pandemic response. Expanding basic rights to stateless populations, including healthcare, education and citizenship, is a necessary precondition for building a robust and inclusive public health infrastructure that ‘leaves no one behind’. 8 Such efforts of inclusion must not be temporary or contingent — ie, in reaction to crises such as COVID-19 — but should be permanent acknowledgements of the longstanding contributions of stateless communities to the Malaysian nation. Extending protections to the most legally marginalised and vulnerable is not a zero-sum game, but is beneficial to the safety and wellbeing of whole societies. II A COMMUNITY-BASED SOCIAL LISTENING APPROACH Drawing on ANAK’s background in community-based advocacy, the organisation disseminated information to, and documented the experiences of, stateless and legally marginalised families as they navigated the COVID-19 crisis on the margins of Sabahan society. A Tailored and Targeted Public Health Messaging Mainstream public health information about COVID-19 was not suitable for stateless audiences, some of whom may be illiterate, speak dialects other than the 7 8 R Loheswar, ‘Muhyiddin: Undocumented Migrants Cause of Sabah’s Covid-19 Situation, More Detention Centres to be Opened’, Malay Mail (online, 3 October 2020) <https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/10/03/muhyiddin-undocumentedmigrants-cause-of-sabahs-covid-19-situation-more-det/1909146>. UNCHR (n 1). 133