Statelessness is a global phenomenon affecting millions of people of all ages, across all regions of the world. The problem is bigger than just a human rights issue. In Malaysia, the rising number of stateless has been so rapid and worsening. The Sabah borders milieu has been described as porous. Intrusion of about 200 armed Filipinos the followers of Jamalul Kiram III, the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu into Lahad Datuon 12th February 2013 is an eye opener that stateless issues can be serious threat to Malaysia security. For that reason, this study investigates the stateless people in Lahad Datu. Lahad Datu is considered as the best case study for this research because the refugees from Philippines and sea gypsies have been in Lahad Datu for the past three decades and the problems associated with their nationality status. The aims of this study are to examine the actors’ way of constructing and framing stateless people, investigate the implication of stateless issues towards social, economy, political and security, scrutinize the actions taken by the government in dealing with the issue of stateless people and the weakness of current measures in dealing with stateless people. Neo realism theory of forced migration serves as the theory that underpins the study. This study employs content analysis and in-depth interview to gather empirical data. The analysis from the findings revealed that there is various constructions and framing of stateless and mostly depends on the context and scenario faced by a particular state. It is also found that the stateless people posed a serious threat in Lahad Datu and brought many negative implications in particular in the aspect of social, economy, political and security. This makes the problem more complicated to be solved.
