Malaysia has begun repatriating around 5,000 asylum seekers to Myanmar under an agreement with the country’s military authorities, despite warnings from rights groups that some returnees could face persecution, armed conflict and forced conscription.
Three Myanmar naval ships were scheduled to leave Malaysia on Tuesday carrying the first 1,476 returnees, the BBC reported.
Malaysia says the repatriation is voluntary.
However, the government has not allowed the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to meet or screen the people selected for return, according to the BBC. The returnees have been held in Malaysian immigration detention centres.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said the people being sent back will include Rohingya, the predominantly Muslim minority who are denied citizenship in Myanmar and have fled persecution there in large numbers.
The repatriation represents a significant change in Malaysia’s approach under Anwar, whose government has refused to recognise the military administration headed by Min Aung Hlaing and has pushed for a negotiated settlement to Myanmar’s civil war.
Anwar has previously advocated international support for the Rohingya.
But he has recently argued that Malaysia can no longer accommodate the population indefinitely amid growing domestic opposition.
“They have clearly become a burden,” Anwar said in a recent podcast interview quoted by the BBC. “A security burden, an economic burden and a source of hostility among the people.”
He nevertheless said authorities should treat refugees humanely.
“We can arrest them, but do not beat, intimidate or humiliate them,” he said.
More than 200,000 Rohingya are now believed to be living in Malaysia, many working in low-paid manual jobs, according to the BBC.
Malaysia does not formally recognise refugees under domestic law, although for years Rohingya arrivals were widely tolerated.
Around 750,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar's Rakhine State for Bangladesh following a military crackdown in August 2017.
Many subsequently attempted dangerous sea journeys from overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh to Malaysia.
Public attitudes in Malaysia began changing during the Covid-19 pandemic as economic pressures increased and anti-Rohingya claims spread online, the BBC reported.
The government at the time hardened its immigration policy, saying Malaysia could take no more refugees and carrying out raids in areas believed to shelter undocumented migrants.
Anti-Rohingya sentiment surged again this year.
An online allegation in May claimed Rohingya had improperly disposed of animal waste following Eid al-Adha. It was followed by viral claims that Rohingya leaders were demanding land and Malaysian citizenship, which the BBC described as false.
A Change.org petition demanding the removal of Rohingya from Malaysia subsequently attracted more than 400,000 signatures before being taken down.
The policy shift comes as Anwar faces growing political pressure at home.
He became prime minister in 2022 after forming a coalition that included UMNO, the party that dominated Malaysian politics for more than six decades before losing power in 2018.
His popularity has since fallen and his party has lost seats in recent local elections. Malaysia must hold its next general election by early 2028.
Tricia Yeoh, director of the Asian Institute for Policy and Engagement at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, told the BBC that Anwar was “in a corner, at his weakest point.”
She said economic concerns and Malaysia’s race-based political discourse had contributed to hostility towards migrants, including arguments that immigrants take jobs or place additional demands on public resources.
Former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Latheefa Koya criticised the repatriation decision, describing it as “disgraceful” and “amoral,” according to the BBC.
Questions remain over how Rohingya among the returnees could be resettled safely in Myanmar.
Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya as citizens and severely restricts their freedom of movement.
Rohingya are largely restricted to Rakhine State, but most of the state is now controlled by the Arakan Army amid its conflict with Myanmar’s military.
The BBC reported that the Arakan Army said two bombs killed 49 people at a market in Kyauktaw on Monday, a day before the Malaysian repatriation operation.
Sittwe, the Rakhine State capital and one of the few remaining areas under military control, is besieged and isolated.
Rohingya there remain confined to camps suffering severe shortages of food and medicine, according to the BBC.
Rights groups have also warned that male returnees could face forced recruitment into Myanmar’s military as the civil war continues.
Malaysia and Myanmar have not publicly detailed how Rohingya returnees would be resettled or how their safety would be guaranteed.
“We all dream of being able to return home one day,” Rohingya refugee rights advocate Nur Sadek told the BBC.
“But we want to return because it is safe and because we choose to — not because we are forced to.”
He said Rohingya and other refugees affected by the decision should be heard and “treated with dignity.”
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