2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(1) included, and that means including often invisible, stateless populations’, 1 UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi highlighted two issues: 1) COVID-19 has not only exposed, but has moreover exacerbated existing inequalities, including those operating along the dimension of legal status; and 2) the protracted exclusion of stateless peoples may undermine governments’ efforts to protect the health of their populations’ recognised citizens. Grandi’s comments echo recommendations from the World Health Organization and other international bodies that governments ���leave no one behind’ in their responses to COVID-19. 2 Yet, in many contexts, stateless persons and others who are legally marginalised have not adequately been factored into policies for managing COVID-19. Such realities are all too apparent in Malaysia, which is home to a significant, albeit unknown, number of stateless persons, irregular migrants and their descendants. Statelessness impacts a diverse cross-section of the Malaysian population and is a status not exclusive to migrants. Rather, statelessness is ‘homegrown’ in Malaysia, affecting generations of people who were born and raised in the country, but for various reasons are nevertheless denied political membership. 3 The majority of stateless and undocumented persons in Malaysia live in the state of Sabah, East Malaysia, and are predominantly composed of people of Indonesian and Filipino descent who are excluded from a range of basic rights and protections, including freedom from arbitrary detention and deportation, education and healthcare. 4 Malaysia’s early successes in managing the pandemic were disrupted by a surge in cases which were disproportionately concentrated among non-citizens. These series of outbreaks, which began around May 2020 in Peninsular Malaysia, 5 exposed the consequences of the Malaysian Government’s chronic marginalisation of its non-citizens. Stateless persons and undocumented migrants in Malaysia contend with a number of legal, social and economic exclusions that amplify their health risks, including a lack of eligibility for social safety net protections, cramped living conditions, employment in high-risk labour market sectors and the constant risk of arrest and detention. 6 Rather than adopt more inclusive measures to manage the spread of COVID-19 among the most vulnerable segments of society, the Malaysian Government has doubled down on its exclusionary and punitive stance toward non-citizens. Early interventions took the form of an extended and large-scale crackdown on ‘illegal’ immigration, along 1 2 3 4 5 6 ‘UNHCR Warns Stateless People Risk Being Left Behind in Coronavirus Response’, UNHCR (Web Page, 11 May 2020) <https://www.unhcr.ca/news/unhcr-warns-stateless-people-riskbeing-left-behind-covid-19-response/> (‘UNHCR’). ‘Leave No One Behind’, United Nations Sustainable Development Group (Web Page) <https://unsdg.un.org/2030-agenda/universal-values/leave-no-one-behind>. Jamie Liew, ‘Homegrown Statelessness in Malaysia’ (2019) 1(1) Statelessness & Citizenship Review 95, 97. Rodziana Mohamed Razali, Addressing Statelessness in Malaysia: New Hope and Remaining Challenges (Working Paper 2017/9, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, December 2017) <https://files.institutesi.org/WP2017_09.pdf>. Andika Wahab, ‘The Outbreak of Covid-19 in Malaysia: Pushing Migrant Workers at the Margin’ (2020) 2(1) Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 2. Malaysia: Undocumented Children in Sabah Vulnerable to Statelessness (Bulletin, Refugees International 13 June 2007) <https://www.refworld.org/docid/47a6ee98d.html>. 132