Malaysia begins sending Myanmar migrants home as rights groups warn of danger

Malaysia has begun sending Myanmar nationals back to their war-torn country, putting the first 1,500 people on ships on Tuesday under a plan the government calls voluntary but that more than 160 civil society groups have urged it to stop.

The group is the first of 5,000 Myanmar nationals who have been agreed for “voluntary” repatriation, according to reports from Malaysia.

How the returns are being carried out

• The returnees were processed at a stadium in Manjung, near the Lumut naval base in the state of Perak.
• They are being taken home by ship from the naval base.
• The vessels are due to dock at the Thanlyin Navy Base, south of Yangon, by the end of the week.
• A Myanmar navy hospital ship, the Than Lwin, was positioned at the base.

It is not clear how many Rohingya were among the first group.

The numbers

Myanmar nationals in Malaysia	Number
Refugees and asylum seekers in total	About 190,000
Held in immigration detention by mid-August	10,388
Agreed for repatriation	5,000
Sent back in the first group	1,500

Rohingya make up about two-thirds of Myanmar refugees in Malaysia. The 1,500 sent home on Tuesday are fewer than one in six of those who were held in immigration detention in mid-August.

‘Immediately halt the deportations’

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the repatriation plan in July. It has been criticised by the United Nations and rights organisations, and more than 160 civil society groups have jointly called on Malaysia to “immediately halt the deportations”.

Rights groups say the dire conditions in Malaysia’s immigration detention centres may have pushed people into agreeing to go home, raising questions about whether the returns are truly voluntary. They warn that returnees could face persecution in Myanmar, where a civil war has raged since the military seized power in 2021. Some advocates have warned that Rohingya returnees could face the risk of genocide.

A country outside the refugee convention

Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which means it does not formally recognise refugees under that treaty.

The Rohingya in Malaysia have also been the target of disinformation campaigns that have fuelled hostility towards them.

Myanmar’s war

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February 2021. On Monday, a military airstrike on a market in Kyauktaw in Rakhine state, the home region of the Rohingya, killed 33 people and wounded 36, according to the Arakan Army.

A wider debate on deportations

The returns come as the treatment of migrants and refugees is under scrutiny worldwide. On Monday, UN human rights experts warned that US deportations to third countries were triggering a “cascade” of rights abuses, while Britain announced it would reopen a refugee resettlement scheme.

Why it matters

Sending people back to a country at war, and to a region where airstrikes are still killing civilians, puts them at serious risk. The next batches of returnees, and whether any Rohingya are among them, will be closely watched by rights groups and the UN.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn.