In Thailand, reforms toward universal birth registration are inconsistently and partially implemented in practice. Children born to refugee, asylum seeker, or stateless parents are disproportionately affected. While the birth registration rate of children born to Thai families stands at 99.5 percent, the birth registration rate of children born to non-Thai families is significantly lower. A survey of 675 children from migrant and minority households born in Thailand found that although 84 percent of those children were delivered in hospital settings, only 50 percent of the births were registered.56 Furthermore, there have been reports of hospitals not issuing birth certificates to some parents, and instead issuing a document merely attesting that a child was born, which is not recognized by the authorities as a valid birth registration. There is a general lack of understanding of the requirement that parents go to District Offices to complete the birth registration of their children. Additionally, there is a fear among refugee, asylum seeker, and stateless persons that contacting state authorities will lead to arrest, punishment, or other repercussions. For this reason, some parents avoid completing the registration process.57 While conflicting nationality laws or gaps in a country’s nationality laws are one of the main causes of statelessness, laws also stipulate how individuals can acquire nationality (naturalize) and therefore provide an avenue to exit a state of legal limbo or irregularity. Positive legislative practices, including those which have been adopted by Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia, can provide sustainable, legal pathways out of situations of statelessness. Establishing Citizenship Laws that Thwart Statelessness In Bangladesh, seemingly straightforward provisions that would provide citizenship by birth to any person born on Bangladeshi territory (including Rohingya) and lead to issuance of birth registration documentation58 are often not applied in practice. Birth registration has been halted for Rohingya and even for members of the host community in the Cox’s Bazar district, and attaining Bangladeshi citizenship by birth is de facto not considered applicable to Rohingya born in refugee camps.59 With regards to Thailand, while the government’s legislative reforms are promising, naturalization eligibility requirements related to educational attainment (which are dependent on possessing birth registration and other legal documentation) have significantly limited the reach of these amendments. Consequently, a significant number of stateless individuals living in Thailand are BANGLADESH Bangladeshi citizenship laws provide for several potential means to acquire Bangladeshi citizenship, including by birth within Bangladeshi territory, descent, and naturalization.60 In the 2008 judgment in Md. Sadagat Khan (Fakku) v. Chief Election Commissioner,61 the Bangladesh Election Commission (Supreme Court of Bangladesh High Court Division) held that, according to Bangladesh’s laws, Urdu-speaking habitual residents of Bangladesh could not be deprived of Bangladeshi citizenship other than by their own disavowal. Alongside its citizenship law, Bangladesh regulates the registration of births through the 2004 Births and Deaths Registration Act and its associated implementing rules.62 17 UND OING PRECARIT Y: ELE VATING P OSITIVE PR ACTICES FOR REFU GEE PROTECTION IN SO U TH AND SO U THE AST ASIA