Refugees have become a global issue for many governments and civil society around the world, but in Malaysia they remain in the margins. Officially, their legal status is no different from that of illegal or undocumented immigrants. In reality, refugees have been displaced and usually have nowhere to return to safely, whereas undocumented immigrants are able to return to their home countries safely. Yet, in a common posture with several of its ASEAN neighbours, Malaysia has been rejecting international refugee law since the Indochinese refugee crisis (Davies, 2008). More than that, the Malaysian government rarely speaks of refugees, especially those living inside its borders. Malaysia is not a signatory to either the 1951 Geneva Convention or the 1967 New York Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Its national legislation, starting with the Immigration Act 1959/1963 (Act 155), does not mention refugees or asylum seekers. Accordingly, in the eyes of the Malaysian law there is no difference between refugees and undocumented immigrants. As such, Malaysia's legislation provides for the deportation of these populations.

In practice, however, Malaysia is a ‘country of first asylum’, i.e. it temporarily tolerates refugees before they are resettled to a third country – first and foremost the US and Australia. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia is responsible for the process, even though no formal agreement has been signed with the Malaysian government. The UNHCR conducts the lengthy, selective Refugee Determination Status procedure to register refugees in Malaysia, then is supposed to select those eligible for resettlement before sending them to countries offering resettlement places. However, even though Malaysia has one of the highest resettlement quotas in the world, the pace of resettlement is very slow. The UNHCR occupies a difficult and fraught position as a conflicted arbiter between resettling governments – as it is dependent on being offered resettlement places – and the Malaysian government, which merely tolerates the UNHCR in Malaysia and expects them to resettle refugees quickly. Thus the UNHCR's contested position is often played out at the cost of many refugees who remain trapped in a legal limbo marked by informality for a protracted period of time.