Some flee on boats. Some hide in the stilts under their homes. Others run into the woods.

All across Malaysia’s Sabah region on Borneo island, stateless residents and undocumented migrants are fleeing public health officials conducting coronavirus screenings, fearful of being detained or deported.

The race to tackle Covid-19 in Sabah, Malaysia’s biggest palm oil-producing state, is being complicated by an estimated one million undocumented migrants and stateless residents who account for a third of the population.