SUB-REGIONAL OVERVIEW: SOUTHEAST ASIA provisions (since repealed) also rendered stateless persons of Japanese descent who were born in the Philippines between the 1930s and 1970s (as well as their descendants) to Filipino mothers and Japanese fathers.348 Citizenship Stripping Citizenship stripping is a less prevalent cause of statelessness within Southeast Asia compared to other sub-regions in the AsiaPacific, however, three countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) have notable instances of citizenship stripping. Under the operation of the 1958 citizenship law, persons residing outside of Indonesia for a period of more than five years without registration lost their Indonesian citizenship (with no protection from statelessness). While the law was reformed in 2006, there remains a small number of persons of Indonesian descent who resided in the Philippines and were stripped of their Indonesian citizenship.349 Additionally, in February 2020, the government of Indonesia disallowed over 1,000 Indonesian citizens who had left Indonesia and joined the Islamic State from returning to the country. While not officially stripping these individuals (who include family members of fighters) of their citizenship, concerns have been raised over the risk of future statelessness faced by this population group.350 Due to barriers to dual nationality in the laws of receiving countries, marriage migrants from Vietnam have to relinquish citizenship to naturalize as citizens, however, where a relationship is determined to be a “sham” or “fraudulent” women have been stripped of their nationality without protections from statelessness.351 Childhood Statelessness The citizenship laws of six states (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam) explicitly provide that foundling SUB-REGIONAL OVERVIEW: SOUTHEAST ASIA children will be considered citizens.352 The citizenship laws of Malaysia, Thailand and TimorLeste provide some protection for foundling children under their law. Malaysian law considers those born in Malaysia who are not born citizens of another country to be Malaysian citizens.353 Timor-Leste’s citizenship laws provide that a child of “incognito parents” will be considered an original citizen of Timor-Leste.354 While the law is unclear as to whether Thailand’s jus soli provisions could provide access to citizenship for foundling children, a government resolution provides that abandoned children can apply for Thai nationality given that they have 10 years of residency certified by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.355 Brunei and Myanmar provide no protection for foundling children to gain citizenship. Brunei, Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore do not provide any explicit protection for children born to stateless parents. The citizenship laws of Indonesia, Laos, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam explicitly provide that children born to stateless parents can be considered citizens.356 In Vietnam, the parents of stateless children must have a “permanent residence” in Vietnam to access this provisions.357 Laotian citizenship similarly provides that children born to stateless parents are considered Laotian citizens if their parents are permanently residing in Laos and have “integrated into the Laos society and culture”.358 The Malaysian Constitution provides that every person born in Malaysia who is “not born a citizen of any country” will be considered as a citizen of Malaysia.359 Thailand’s jus soli citizenship provisions may provide an avenue to citizenship to children of stateless parents who have a regularized stay in Thailand.360 Children whose parents have not regularized, but are residing in Thailand, therefore, do not have an avenue for citizenship under these provisions. The jus soli provisions of Cambodian citizenship law similarly may provide protection to children born to stateless parents in limited circumstances where those parents were born and resided legally in Cambodia and were considered “foreigners”.361 While this provision may provide some protection from inter-generational statelessness in Cambodia, its scope is limited. Children born to parents who themselves were born outside of the country or who were born within the country but are considered to be “illegally” residing in the country will not be able to gain citizenship.362 Administrative Barriers The denial of civil registration documents and arbitrary and discriminatory applications of policy have played a key role in causing and compounding statelessness in Southeast Asia. Ethnic minority groups in Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam face barriers to gaining civil registration and citizenship, with such barriers leading to protracted and intergenerational statelessness.363 Ethnic Vietnamese populations in Cambodia have also faced discriminatory barriers to both recognition of citizenship and access to citizenship through naturalization.364 Notably, administrative barriers have continued to limit the ability of members of ‘highland’ communities in Thailand to gain citizenship. Differentiation in treatment by officials, lack of documentation, ingrained concepts of communities as ‘mobile’, and physical/geographic barriers to accessing communities have complicated the citizenship application/verification process for these communities.365 In the past decades, the provision and withdrawal of civil registration documents have been complex, discriminatory, and a key component of the persecution of the Rohingya population in Myanmar.366 Additionally, the failure of the government of Myanmar to facilitate the naturalization of Rohingya populations, and the degradation of the documented status of Rohingya are also key causes of statelessness within Myanmar.367 Birth Registration In Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, and Thailand low rates of birth registration among certain populations have exposed potentially millions of children to the risk of statelessness,368 with children of migrant workers and ethnic minorities left particularly vulnerable to the risk of statelessness.369 For example, low birth registration rates and barriers to birth registration especially among children of migrant workers and communities living in poverty have placed as many as 50 million children in Indonesia at risk of statelessness.370 This risk is compounded across Cambodia, Indonesia, and Laos by notably FIGURE 18 Birth registration rates across the Southeast Asia 50 million children in Indonesia at risk of statelessness Cambodia 64% Indonesia 77% Laos 60% 130,000 Sama Bajau (Bajau Laut) community members who reside in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia at risk of statelessness UNICEF, ‘Birth Registration Data Set’ (May 2022) 60 61 STATELESSNESS ENCYCLOPEDIA ASIA PACIFIC REPORT 2023