“Any new born found exposed in any place shall be presumed to have been born at the location in which the child is found, to a mother who is a permanent resident of Malaysia and the date of the finding shall be taken to be the date of the birth”. Accordingly, while new born foundlings are clearly entitled to Malaysian nationality by virtue of this provision, older foundlings are excluded. 33. As a result of the above, there are numerous cases of childhood statelessness amongst children born in Malaysia. However, the extent of statelessness amongst these populations remains unmapped and is therefore unclear.21 Some of these populations include: I. Children of migrant workers, asylum seekers and refugees whose births are often not registered because their parents are undocumented and therefore are likely to fear approaching authorities to register births for fear or arrest, detention and deportation; II. Children born to parents with mixed nationality who are not married and where the mother is not a Malaysian citizen; III. Adopted stateless children; IV. Children born in welfare homes, foundlings and street children who often lack documentation due to discriminatory policies and poverty; V. Indigenous children throughout Malaysia who often face difficulties in obtaining documentation due to their migratory lifestyles, poverty, lack of awareness of the importance of obtaining documentation and isolation from government authorities; and VI. Foundlings who are no longer considered “new born”. Stateless Rohingya Refugees and Other Refugee Populations 34. Malaysia is home to tens of thousands of Rohingya asylum seekers and refugees. However, Malaysian immigration law does not recognise the protections afforded by the Refugee Convention. Therefore, asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia are considered to be “illegal migrants” and are at risk of arrest and detention on this basis. 35. In May 2015, Malaysia, with Thailand and Indonesia pushed back boats of Rohingya asylum seekers, in clear violation of the principle of non refoulement. This caused an international crisis and placed hundreds of lives at risk.22 Also, in 2015, mass graves and death camps used by traffickers were found on the Malaysia-Thailand border, revealing the pathway that that thousands of Rohingya asylum seekers and other victims of trafficking have been forced to take to seek asylum in Malaysia. Various actors in Malaysia, including the Malaysian Bar Association have accused the Malaysian Government of failing to adequately investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes.23 21 Rodziana Razali, Addressing Statelessness in Malaysia: New Hope and Remaining Challenges, SI Statelessness Working Paper Series No 2017/9, 2017 http://www.institutesi.org/WP2017_09.pdf 22 See institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, Spotlight: Rohingya on the High Seas, Monthly Bulletin, May 2015, available at: http://www.institutesi.org/stateless_bulletin_2015-05.pdf 23 See Bede Hong, Malaysian Bar Association calls for RCI into death camps in Perlis, The Malaysian Insight, 17 March 2018, available at: https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/43522/. 8