UUM Journal of Legal Studies, 13, No. 1 (January) 2022, pp: 345–380 several government officers who were interviewed: “so far there is no legal definition for stateless children in Malaysia”; “The stateless children are also referred to as undocumented children, Anak gelandangan or even refugee children”; and “Till to date, there is no specific law or policy to define, identify or categorize the stateless children in Malaysia”. The findings of the interviews had verified that the undocumented children encompassed stateless children, refugee children, street children, migrant children, street children, asylum seeker children and even local children who were born in Malaysia (from either one Malaysian citizen or both parents being Malaysians, who have citizenship /no citizenship issues). These stateless children have been categorized into the following groups: a. Children who were stateless, refugees, undocumented or asylum seekers not accompanied (by parents or guardians). Parents of these children were often refugees or stateless (for example, Rohingyas), or either one of the parents was a Malaysian and the other was a stateless person (UNHCR, 2010). b. Children who were born to parents of whom either one was a non-Malaysian. The non-Malaysian parent was often an illegal or legal migrant. The parents might or might not possess a birth registration document of their child or their own marriage registration document, which could render the child at risk of being regarded as stateless. Many stateless children in Malaysia, particularly in the state of Sabah, fell into this category, where one parent was a foreigner (of Indonesia/Philippines origin) and the other was a Malaysian (Allerton, 2014, pp.26-34). However, in most cases, both parents were foreigners with no birth documents or citizenship (Allerton, 2014, pp.26-34). c. Children who were abandoned, the foundlings, were usually categorized as stateless children due to the absence of information about their biological parents (and their origin) (Chen, 2003, pp.119-135 & UNHCR, 2012, p.7). In addition to the abovementioned situation, the research findings of Allerton (2014) and Lumayag (2016) have established that there was no clear identification or categorization of stateless children in Malaysia, particularly in Sabah. Allerton (2014) and Lumayag (2016) 351

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