domestic laws currently in force in the ASEAN region provide specifically for the legal status of “stateless person”. As a consequence, the status of stateless persons often remains ambiguous or is dealt with on an ad hoc basis as cases come to the attention of the state. Thus, in Malaysia for instance, the Immigration Act (Act 1959/63) does not differentiate between refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons.164 However, section 55 (1) of the Immigration Act gives the Home Minister the power to exempt any person or group from the provisions of the Act. This section provides a legal basis for promoting the protection of certain groups and individuals by offering them a temporary residence permit called the IMM13. In 2006, the government announced it would use this avenue to improve the legal status of people from the Muslim population of northern Rakhine State in Myanmar who had settled in Malaysia, whose situation is characterised by both statelessness and asylum-related concerns. A registration exercise was initiated to issue IMM13 permits to Muslims of northern Rakhine State in order to allow them to work, attend school and live in the country legally. This exercise was later suspended, but it nevertheless illustrates what steps could be taken to provide a stateless population with a stable legal status and promote their enjoyment of rights through ad hoc remedies based on existing domestic law.165 A similar approach has also been seen in Thailand where, over the years, successive Cabinet Resolutions established a dedicated legal status for specified categories of nonnationals present in Thailand and granted temporary permission to reside under article 17 of the Immigration Act.166 In this way, many stateless persons in Thailand have been able to access a legal status of some kind, contributing significantly to their enjoyment of rights.167 6.2 Promoting access to personal documentation The enjoyment of rights often hinges, in practice, on a person’s ability to identify him or herself and show proof of legal status. A second critical element in protecting the rights of stateless persons is therefore the issuance of some form of personal documentation. Ideally, stateless persons would be issued with documents that vouch for both their identity and their status as a stateless person.168 In Thailand, for instance, as successive groups of non-nationals were granted a legal status under the immigration law, identity cards were also developed that verified this legal status.169 Persons: Implementation within European Union Member States and Recommendations for Harmonisation, UNHCR, October 2003. 164 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Vernor Munoz Villalobos: addendum: mission to Malaysia, A/HRC/11/8/Add.2, 20 March 2009. 165 International Federation for Human Rights, Undocumented migrants and refugees in Malaysia: Raids, detention and discrimination, 19 March 2008; US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, World Refugee Survey 2009 – Malaysia, 17 June 2009; M. Lynch; K. Southwick, Nationality rights for all: A progress report and global survey on statelessness, Refugees International, 2009; Equal Rights Trust, Trapped in a circle of flight: Stateless Rohingya in Malaysia, January 2010. 166 Thus, for example, a Cabinet Resolution passed on 17 March 1992 granted legal migrant status to the Thai Lue who had been identified as lacking Thai nationality. Meanwhile, hill tribe people who were established in Thailand before 3 October 1985 – but did not hold Thai nationality – were granted the permanent right to reside in the country under Cabinet Resolutions passed in 1995 and 2000. Tang Lay Lee, Statelessness, human rights and gender: irregular migrant workers from Burma in Thailand, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2005; International Rescue Committee, Basic information on rights of migrant workers in Thailand, IRC Protection Team, Bangkok Office, January 2006; UNESCO, Citizenship Manual – Capacity building on birth registration and citizenship in Thailand, 2008; US Department of State, 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Thailand, 11 March 2008. 167 In addition, it has opened avenues for the prevention of statelessness among children of persons who hold one of these dedicated statuses and will facilitate the reduction of statelessness as Thailand develops new policies in this area. This shows how efforts to protect stateless persons can complement and reinforce the prevention and reduction of statelessness. Punthip Kanchanachittra Saisoonthorn, “Development of concepts of nationality and the efforts to reduce statelessness in Thailand” in Refuge Survey Quarterly, Vol. 25, Issue 3, 2006; L. van Waas, Is permanent illegality inevitable? The challenge to ensuring birth registration and the right to a nationality for the children of irregular migrants – Thailand and the Dominican Republic, Plan International, 2006; UNESCO, Citizenship Manual – Capacity building on birth registration and citizenship in Thailand, 2008. 168 This is one of the special measures provided for in the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, under which state parties are to issue identity documents to any stateless persons in their territory. Article 27 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 169 The multitude of specific legal statuses created led to a complex system of colour-coded cards, which has more recently been merged with the regular identity card system using 13-digit personal identification numbers. International Rescue Committee, Basic information on rights of migrant workers in Thailand, IRC Protection Team, Bangkok Office, January 2006; UNESCO, Citizenship Manual – Capacity building on birth registration and citizenship in Thailand, 2008; US Department of State, 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Thailand, 11 March 2008. 25