SUB-REGIONAL OVERVIEW: SOUTHEAST ASIA Brunei, Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore do not provide any explicit protection for children born to stateless parents. The jus soli provisions of Cambodian citizenship law 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’).2520 The citizenship laws of Indonesia, Laos, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam explicitly provide that children born to stateless parents will be considered citizens.2521 In Viet Nam, the parents must have a ‘permanent residence’ in Viet Nam.2522 Laotian citizenship similarly provides that children born to stateless parents are considered Laotian citizens if the parents are permanently residing in Laos and have ‘integrated to the Lao society and culture’.2523 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.2524 Thailand’s jus soli citizenship provisions may provide avenues to citizenship to children of stateless parents who have regularised stay in Thailand.2525 Article 1 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness states that State parties “shall grant nationality to a person born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless” either “by birth, by operation of law, or upon and application”.2526 Citizenship stripping Citizenship stripping is a less prevalent cause of statelessness within Southeast Asia. However, four countries (Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar, and Viet Nam) have notable instances of citizenship deprivation. 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 inbuilt protection from statelessness). While the law was reformed in 2006, there remains a small number of persons 226 SUB-REGIONAL OVERVIEW: SOUTHEAST ASIA of Indonesian descent who resided in the Philippines and were stripped of their Indonesian citizenship.2527 Citizenship stripping is a less prevalent cause of statelessness within Southeast Asia. However, four countries (Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar, and Viet Nam) have notable instances of citizenship deprivation. Due to barriers to dual nationality in the laws of receiving countries, marriage migrants from Viet Nam had to relinquish citizenship to naturalize as citizens, however, where a relationship was determined to be a ‘sham’ or fraudulent women have been stripped of their nationality without protections from statelessness.2528 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.2529 Myanmar’s citizenship legislation includes vague, overarching provisions allowing for the revocation of citizenship.2530 There are no legislative protections for those who have their citizenship revoked from becoming stateless, which could leave some at risk of statelessness.2531 Notably, in Singapore, there is no right to appeal.2532 Naturalized citizens of Singapore may be deprived of their citizenship if they resided outside of Singapore for five continuous years without registering annually at the Singaporean consulate.2533 Administrative barriers The denial of civil registration documents and arbitrary and discriminatory applications of policy STATELESSNESS ENCYCLOPEDIA ASIA PACIFIC (DETAILED VERSION) have played a key role in causing and compounding statelessness in Southeast Asia. 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.2534 In the past decades the provision and withdrawal of civil registration documents has been complex, discriminatory and a key component of the persecution of the Rohingya population in Myanmar.2535 Additionally, the failure of the government of Myanmar to facilitate the naturalization of Rohingya populations, and the degradation of the documented status of Rohingya that is also a key cause of statelessness within Myanmar.2536 Ethnic minority groups in Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines and Viet Nam have also faced barriers to gaining civil registration and citizenship, with such barriers leading to protracted and intergenerational statelessness.2537 Ethnic Vietnamese populations in Cambodia have also faced discriminatory barriers to both recognition of citizenship and access to citizenship through naturalization.2538 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.2539 Administrative and practical barriers to accessing birth registration have placed as many as 130,000 Sama Bajau (Bajut Laut) community members — who reside in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia — at risk of statelessness.2540 Additionally, lack of documentation, specifically among older populations in Singapore has left persons stateless since the country’s independence in 1965.2541 In Singapore, heavy penalties for late registration and a lack of registration procedures for children born outside of Singapore present major barriers to birth registration.2542 Requirement of birth registration for citizenship acquisition A birth certificate is the primary document proving citizenship in Cambodia, Thailand, and Timor-Leste.2543 In six States (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Viet Nam), a birth certificate, among other documents, may certify citizenship.2544 Information is limited on the required documents for proving citizenship in Brunei and Laos. FIGURE 11 Birth Registration rates of countries in Southeast Asia Brunei Darussalam 100%2545 (2020) Cambodia 92%2546 (2022) Indonesia 81%2547 (2022) Lao People’s Democratic Republic 73%2548 (2017) 90-99%2549 (2018) Malaysia Myanmar 81%2550 (2016) Philippines 92%2551 (2017) Singapore 100%2552 (2021) Thailand 100%2553 (2019) Timor-Leste 60%2554 (2016) Viet Nam 98%2555 (2021) 0 20 40 60 80 100 Source: “Birth and Death Registration Completeness” (UN Statistics Division, April 2023); “Data Warehouse,” UNICEF DATA REPORT 2024 227