Reaching Stateless, Undocumented and Migrant Communities III CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The chronic exclusion of stateless and legally marginalised populations, particularly in times of health crises, is dangerous not only to these communities, but to the health and wellbeing of whole societies. ANAK’s grassroots work has demonstrated that the denial of citizenship is in itself a major health risk. The authors make the following policy recommendations in the hope that they will be generalisable beyond the Malaysian context. A Treat Stateless People as Humans, Not Security Risks Scapegoating migrants for the spread of COVID-19, and enacting punitive measures against them, will only undermine the public health effort to contain an infectious disease that does not discriminate on the basis of legal status. Stateless and other legally marginalised communities should be considered priority populations in pandemic response measures due to their longstanding vulnerabilities, rather than vectors for disease that need to be contained. B Listen, Learn and Adapt Public health information campaigns geared toward the general population may not be accessible or appropriate for stateless and legally marginalised communities, who face qualitatively different constraints and may have unique needs. It is vital that governments and civil society actors work together to understand the situation on the ground for stateless communities and adapt communication strategies and other public health interventions accordingly. For example, social media tools, which allow for bidirectional engagement and the delivery of tailored messages to targeted demographics, may be a low-cost yet powerful way to reach the hard-to-reach. C Recognise That Health is a Human Right, Regardless of One’s Legal Status Access to health services for legally marginalised populations should not only be extended on a conditional or reactionary basis. Providing enduring and unconditional access to healthcare for all, irrespective of legal status, will foster inclusive societies that are more resilient to public health crises. It is therefore crucial that governments ‘leave no one behind’ when it comes to the basic human right to health — whether it is during this current COVID-19 pandemic or beyond it. 141