2019
14S
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
(Chinese) and Thai
mother.
Mother (30 yo)
who is stateless
and has two
stateless children.
mother is Thai.
Mother’s mother
is Indian descent
but Malaysian
citizenship. On
birth certificate,
no info about
father. Father
unknown
Mother is
Malaysian citizen
(Indian descent).
She has three
siblings who have
Malaysian
citizenship.
Father is
Malaysian of
Indian descent
and mother who
was adopted and
did not possess a
birth certificate or
IC.
15S
63 year old woman
who has
permanent
residence but no
citizenship.
16S
33 year old woman
who was not born
in a hospital and
not issued a birth
certificate at birth
(1985).
17S
Adopted child who
had acquired birth
certificate from
doctor from clinic
(fraudulent
document).
Chinese adopted
parents.
Biological mother
was Chinese and
not married. Not
sure what
biological father
was.
18S
Child’s birth
registered late
because marriage
registered late.
Father is
Malaysian
(Chinese) and
mother is
Indonesian from
Bali.
and tried to register
her birth.
Had issues since
birth certificate
stated citizenship
unknown. Mother’s
birth certificate
clearly states
mother is citizen.
1(1)
Indian.
Lost her birth
certificate and was
not able to get a
new one.
Indian.
Had no birth
certificate until
2009. Could not get
one since her
mother did not have
any documents.
Four other siblings
have citizenship
despite having same
parents.
Parents
unknowingly
acquired fraudulent
birth certificate
from clinic when
child was adopted.
When child tried to
get IC at 12, birth
certificate was
seized.
Mother has been
trying to register
the child for some
time but has been
waiting.
Indian.
Chinese.
ChineseIndonesian.
Table 3: Lawyers. Paralegals, NGO representatives and Academics Interviewed
Anonym
Profession
ous
Indicator
PARALEGALS
1PL
Day job is sales
person but
volunteers with
local political
office to help
stateless
persons.
Encounters with
stateless persons
Had worked in a MP’s
office for a number of
years where
constituents came to
ask for help to get
citizenship. Has seen 50
cases in 9 years with
only approximately
20% success rate.
Brought many stateless
128
Cases
Case 1: Woman is 7th child in a
family who wanted to get married
but could not because had no
documentation. After a lot of work
obtaining documentation for
hospital she was born in, she was
able to get identity documents.