Bajau Laut: Sea Nomads, Free Divers & the Mabul Crisis
Who are the Bajau Laut?
The Bajau Laut (also called Sama Dilaut, Orang Laut, or simply Sea Bajau) are a community of sea nomads who have lived on the waters of the Sulu Sea and Celebes Sea for centuries. In Sabah, they are concentrated in Semporna and on nearby islands — Mabul, Omadal, Bum Bum, and Selakan — with smaller communities in Lahad Datu and Sandakan. An estimated 28,000 Bajau Laut live in Sabah, of whom approximately 78% are stateless or undocumented as of 2024 DOSM and UNHCR estimates.
The Bajau Laut are not simply "poor fishermen." They are one of the world's last true maritime nomadic peoples — communities whose entire culture, spirituality, biology, and identity is shaped by the sea. Their traditional lepa-lepa boats are elaborately carved, colourfully decorated homes. Their children learn to swim before they walk. Their divers can descend to 60 metres without equipment. And their relationship with the ocean is so fundamental that, in some sub-groups, traditional beliefs held that setting foot on land would bring illness.
Today, that ancient way of life is under severe and accelerating pressure — from statelessness, forced relocation, climate change affecting reef health, and tourism development displacing their communities from ancestral waters.
How deep can Bajau Laut divers go?
Experienced Bajau Laut free divers can descend to depths of 60 metres (196 feet) without any breathing equipment, and hold their breath for up to 13 minutes. These are not outliers — they are community-wide capabilities developed over generations of spearfishing, sea cucumber collection, and shellfish gathering.
In 2018, a landmark study by Ilardo et al., published in the journal Cell, revealed the genetic basis of this extraordinary ability. The research found that Bajau Laut people carry a genetic variant of the PDE10A gene that gives them spleens approximately 50% larger than the neighbouring Saluan people — a land-dwelling population used as a comparison group. The spleen plays a critical role in diving: when a person submerges, the spleen contracts and releases oxygen-rich red blood cells into circulation, extending the time before oxygen deprivation forces surfacing.
This is one of the only confirmed cases of human genetic adaptation to an occupational lifestyle — evolution in response to free-diving, detectable in the Bajau Laut genome. The PDE10A variant appears to have spread through the Bajau Laut population over hundreds of generations of sea-nomadic life. The finding attracted worldwide scientific and media attention, placing the Bajau Laut on the global map as a living example of ongoing human evolution.
Traditional spearfishing technique involves diving without a mask (Bajau divers deliberately rupture their eardrums in youth to eliminate pressure pain from depth), using a simple wooden spear, and working the reef methodically for hours. Targets include sea cucumber (teripang), octopus, grouper, shellfish, and lobster. Historically, catch was sold to Chinese middlemen in Semporna town.
The 2018 Cell study by Ilardo et al. is peer-reviewed and widely cited in biology and anthropology literature. The Bajau Laut's enlarged spleens are not from training alone — they carry the genetic variant regardless of whether the individual dives or not. This means the adaptation is heritable, confirming recent natural selection pressure. The irony noted by researchers: the communities whose biology made them scientifically famous are simultaneously being displaced from the very waters that shaped that biology.
What is the traditional Bajau Laut way of life?
Traditional Bajau Laut life is built entirely around the sea. The centre of this life is the lepa-lepa — a long, narrow wooden boat that functions as home, transport, kitchen, and social space. Lepa are intricately carved from hardwood and decorated with colourful cloth panels, flags (panglima), woven mats, and ornamental woodwork. A family's lepa reflects their artistry, status, and identity. Well-made lepa are family heirlooms passed across generations.
Historically, some Bajau Laut sub-groups considered setting foot on land taboo — the sea was safe, land was associated with illness and spiritual danger. This belief has softened over generations, but the psychological and cultural primacy of the sea remains. Many Bajau Laut who have been relocated to land housing report depression and disorientation — a loss of sensory environment that was the context for every aspect of their lives.
Daily life traditionally involved: free-diving at dawn for sea cucumber and fish; cleaning and drying the catch on deck; selling to Chinese middlemen in Semporna harbour; repairing nets and boats in the afternoon; gong music and storytelling in the evening. Oral spiritual traditions — a blend of animism and Islam — guide important life events: birth, circumcision, marriage, death, and the start of each fishing season.
The stilt village — clusters of houses built on wooden stilts over shallow reef flats, connected by wooden walkways — became the settled alternative to pure boat life, adopted by Bajau Laut communities from roughly the 19th century onwards. Mabul Island's Bajau Laut stilt village became perhaps the most photographed such settlement in Sabah — its colourful houses over crystal-clear water an iconic image of the region.
What happened at Mabul Island in 2024?
In June 2024, Malaysian authorities in Semporna carried out a major demolition operation that saw the destruction and burning of 273 wooden stilt houses belonging to the Bajau Laut community. The action left an estimated 400+ families homeless. The stated reasons included security concerns and environmental conservation, but subsequent reporting by The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and Reuters revealed the site had been earmarked for a new township development.
The demolitions provoked international outrage and were documented extensively by human rights organisations including SUHAKAM (Malaysia's Human Rights Commission), Refugees International, Pusat KOMAS, and UNHCR Malaysia. The South China Morning Post, CNN, and the BBC all covered the story. A 2024 academic paper published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute analysed the "polarised streams of online opinion" the demolitions triggered in Malaysia, noting a sharp divide between those who supported the action as development and those who condemned it as ethnic displacement.
A 2025 research paper in South East Asia Research (Tandfonline) critically examined the "territorialization of maritime spaces" — how state and commercial interests are progressively enclosing the Bajau Laut's traditional fishing grounds and living areas, systematically removing their ability to live according to their customary practices.
As of April 2026, the situation remains unresolved. Many displaced families live in temporary conditions. No formal resettlement programme with adequate housing, livelihood support, and documentation pathways has been announced. The Mabul stilt village that was a major draw for divers visiting the area — bringing significant tourism revenue to Semporna — has been fundamentally altered.
The Bajau Laut displacement is an active, documented human rights issue, not just history. If you visit Semporna and Mabul Island, you will see the impact firsthand. Several NGOs accept donations specifically for Bajau Laut community support — including Mercy Malaysia, UNHCR Malaysia, and local community organisations based in Semporna.
Why are so many Bajau Laut stateless?
Approximately 78% of Bajah Laut in Sabah are stateless or undocumented — meaning they hold citizenship in no country. This is the result of geography, history, and bureaucratic systems that were never designed to accommodate sea-nomadic peoples.
The Bajau Laut's ancestral territory spans the Sulu Sea across what are now Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia — three nation-states whose maritime borders were drawn by colonial powers without reference to the existing sea-nomadic communities. The Bajau Laut predate all three nations. Their traditional waters have always been borderless.
When these nations formalised citizenship requirements in the 20th century, Bajau Laut families were often unable to register. Births on boats had no witnesses or officials. Families moved between Malaysian, Filipino, and Indonesian waters seasonally. Many Bajau Laut did not understand or engage with the bureaucratic registration processes being introduced. The result, across multiple generations, was a community outside the legal framework of any nation.
Without citizenship or documentation, Bajau Laut face legal exclusion from: public education, formal employment, land ownership, healthcare (beyond emergency), legal redress (courts will not hear cases from undocumented persons), and protection from arbitrary arrest or deportation. In 2024, Malaysia introduced the SWIMS (Sabah Workers Integrated Management System) biometric database to better document undocumented migrants, offering temporary work permits — but this is not a pathway to citizenship.
| Right or Service | Malaysian Citizen | PLKS (Temp. Work Permit) | Undocumented/Stateless |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public school enrolment | Yes | Limited access | No (community schools only) |
| Healthcare | Yes (subsidised) | Emergency only | Emergency only |
| Legal employment | Yes | Specific sectors only | No formal employment |
| Land/property rights | Yes | No | No |
| Legal protection from demolition | Yes (due process) | Limited | Effectively none |
| Vote in elections | Yes | No | No |
What is the Regatta Lepa festival?
The Regatta Lepa is Semporna's annual festival celebrating Bajau Laut maritime heritage, held since 1994. It is one of the longest-running and most visually spectacular festivals in East Sabah. The centrepiece is a competition for the Most Beautiful Lepa — where Bajau Laut families lavish their traditional boats with colourful woven textiles, flags, umbrellas, and ornamental woodwork before parading them through Semporna's waters.
The festival also features a Lepa beauty queen competition, traditional Bajau Laut dances, a kelle-kelle (traditional boat race), and duck-catching competitions. The decorated lepa boats, some stretching 10–15 metres and bearing dozens of colourful flags and cloth panels, create an extraordinary visual spectacle.
2025: Regatta Lepa 2025 ran June 14–29, with the main festival culminating June 24–29 in Semporna. 2026: Scheduled for late April — check sabahtourism.com for exact dates. The festival is recognised by Malaysia Tourism as part of the national events calendar and has received international media attention as one of Southeast Asia's most unique cultural festivals.
What language do the Bajau Laut speak?
Sama Dilaut is the language of the Bajau Laut — an oral language with no traditional writing system. It belongs to the Sama-Bajau branch of the Austronesian language family, closely related to West Coast Bajau (Sama Taud) and Tausug, but different enough that the groups are not fully mutually intelligible.
UNESCO classifies Sama Dilaut as Vulnerable to Definitely Endangered depending on sub-dialect, with some sub-varieties having fewer than 1,000 active speakers. The shift away from traditional sea-nomadic life — whether voluntary or forced — accelerates language loss, as the vocabulary of Sama Dilaut is deeply tied to the sea: types of currents, fishing techniques, weather signs, reef features, boat parts, and the spiritual world of the ocean. When the sea is removed from daily life, much of that vocabulary becomes redundant.
Oral storytelling, songs, and ritual chants remain the primary vehicle of cultural transmission among older Bajau Laut. Some academic linguists at UMS (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) and international partners are documenting Sama Dilaut before sub-dialects disappear entirely.
What is being done to help the Bajau Laut?
Several organisations and programmes address different aspects of the Bajau Laut's situation, though none yet offer a comprehensive solution to statelessness:
UNHCR Malaysia (unhcr.org/malaysia) registers stateless persons and advocates for documentation pathways. UNHCR cards provide some protection from arbitrary arrest but do not grant rights equivalent to citizenship.
SUHAKAM (Malaysia's Human Rights Commission) has published multiple reports on statelessness in Sabah and conducted public inquiries into the rights of the Bajau Laut and other stateless communities. Their findings are publicly accessible at suhakam.org.my.
Mercy Malaysia operates mobile medical clinics serving stateless communities in Semporna including Bajau Laut — providing healthcare to those who would otherwise have no access.
Floating Community Schools (Sekolah Komuniti): The Malaysian government operates these as an alternative to mainstream public school for stateless children. Teachers travel by boat to reach stilt village communities. Coverage is partial but represents a formal commitment to basic education access.
Local NGOs and academic researchers at UMS document culture, language, and community conditions. Several international documentary filmmakers (including Al Jazeera's 101 East programme) have brought global attention to the Bajau Laut's situation in recent years.