1. Discriminatory nationality laws
As noted above, ethnicity and national identity share a deep connection within a number of States in Southeast Asia. The most conspicuous example of this is the ethnic discrimination present in the nationality law of Myanmar that has rendered hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya stateless. Denial of citizenship to the Rohingya, as codified in the 1982 citizenship law, has been a key component of the systemic oppression and persecution of the Rohingya people by the government and military of Myanmar prior to the 2021 military coup.
Additionally, ethnic discrimination affects a number of other populations in countries other than Myanmar. For example, in the process of Thai nation building in the 20th Century, Thai ethnicity and citizenship were deeply entwined. Members of nine ethnic groups often referred to as ‘hill-tribe’ or ‘highland’ communities living in the northwest of the country have faced intergenerational statelessness due to social exclusion. In Brunei, limitations of nationality to certain prescribed ethnic groups, or “indigenous groups of the Malay race” is the primary cause of statelessness with the largest stateless registered stateless group being persons of Chinese heritage.
Gender discriminatory nationality laws place a number of children at risk of statelessness in Malaysia and Brunei. Notably, children born outside of Malaysia to Malaysian citizen mothers and foreign fathers do not immediately gain citizenship of Malaysia. Children born in Malaysia out of wedlock (or in situations where the marriage is not recognised by the State, notably non-Islamic customary or religious marriages) to a Malaysian citizen father and a mother who is stateless or whose citizenship cannot be ascertained, are also at risk of statelessness due to discriminatory provision that disallow the transfer of nationality from a father outside of wedlock.
A combination of ethnic discrimination and gender discriminatory provisions also rendered stateless persons of Japanese descent who were born in the Philippines between the 1930’s and 1970’s (as well as their descendants) to Filipino mothers and Japanese fathers. Some gender discrimination remains in the citizenship legislation of the Philippines, as naturalized alien women who are married to Philippine citizen men may ipso facto become a Philippine citizen through marriage; however, Philippine citizen women cannot confer nationality to a foreign spouse on the same basis as men. Singapore’s citizenship law also contains some gender discriminatory provisions, where a child born in Singapore to a citizen mother and a father who is foreign diplomat will not be a citizen, despite the fact that the child should be eligible for citizenship by descent through their citizen mother. The limitation on the ability of married women to confer nationality to their foreign spouse on the same basis as men also constitutes gender discrimination. Singapore law’s retention of the concept of illegitimacy, as applied to children born out of wedlock, creates a discriminatory imbalance and an increased risk of statelessness for children deemed as “illegitimate”. While Thailand’s 2008 amendments to its citizenship law allowed for foreign spouses to apply for Thai citizenship without the requirement of permanent residence, the Act still does not allow for full gender equality in the ability to confer citizenship to foreign spouses. Women are also limited in their ability to confer nationality onto foreign husbands in Brunei while Brunei men are able to confer nationality to a foreign spouse.
2. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness
Two States in Southeast Asia (Brunei and Myanmar) provide no protection for stateless or foundling children to gain citizenship. The citizenship laws of six States (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam) explicitly provide that foundling children will be considered citizens. In Indonesia, there have been some implementation issues due to the absence of specific guidelines and procedures of the provisions. The citizenship laws of three States (Malaysia, Thailand and Timor-Leste) provide some protection for foundling children under their law. Malaysian law considers those born in Malaysia who are not born citizens of another country to be citizens of Malaysia. Timor-Leste’s citizenship laws provide that a child of ‘incognito parents’ will be considered an original citizen of Timor-Leste. Foundlings can acquire Thai nationality through naturalization. However, there are many conditions of naturalization that limit many foundlings from accessing the naturalization process.
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’). The citizenship laws of Indonesia, Laos, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam explicitly provide that children born to stateless parents will be considered citizens. In Viet Nam, the parents must have a ‘permanent residence’ in Viet Nam. 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’. 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. Thailand’s jus soli citizenship provisions may provide avenues to citizenship to children of stateless parents who have regularized stay in Thailand. 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”.
3. 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 of Indonesian descent who resided in the Philippines and were stripped of their Indonesian citizenship.
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.
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. Myanmar’s citizenship legislation includes vague, overarching provisions allowing for the revocation of citizenship. There are no legislative protections for those who have their citizenship revoked from becoming stateless, which could leave some at risk of statelessness. Notably, in Singapore, there is no right to appeal. 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.
4. Administrative Barriers
The denial of civil registration documents and arbitrary and discriminatory applications of policy 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. 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. 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.
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. Ethnic Vietnamese populations in Cambodia have also faced discriminatory barriers to both recognition of citizenship and access to citizenship through naturalization. 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. 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. Additionally, lack of documentation, specifically among older populations in Singapore has left persons stateless since the country’s independence in 1965. 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.
5. Requirement of Birth Registration for Citizenship Acquisition
A birth certificate is the primary document proving citizenship in Cambodia, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. In six States (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Viet Nam), a birth certificate, among other documents, may certify citizenship. Information is limited on the required documents for proving citizenship in Brunei and Laos.
Source: “Birth and Death Registration Completeness” (UN Statistics Division, April 2023); “Data Warehouse,” UNICEF DATA
