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Malaysia Returns 1,500 Myanmar Migrants Amid Safety Concerns
Confirmed
In Short: Nearly 1,500 Myanmar migrants were returned to their war-torn home country from Malaysia on Sunday, raising concerns about their safety.
Nearly 1,500 Myanmar migrants were returned to their war-torn home country from Malaysia on Sunday, according to a Myanmar official. Three Myanmar Navy ships carrying the migrants docked at the Thanlyin base just before 7:30 am (0100 GMT).
The repatriation scheme has raised concerns among rights monitors who argue that conditions in Myanmar, which has been consumed by civil war since a 2021 military coup, do not guarantee safe homecomings as required under international law.
Kyaw Myint, 55, showed up to collect three grandchildren who had been detained in Malaysia for one and a half years. He expressed worry about them being conscripted by the military or ethnic armed groups.
The UN refugee agency said its staff were not allowed to meet migrants to confirm whether their decisions to return were genuinely free and informed. The UN has warned that conditions in Myanmar mean safe homecomings cannot be guaranteed.
Hundreds of families gathered at dawn to collect their relatives outside the Myanmar Navy base in Thanlyin, where cars, taxis, and buses were parked in ranks. Returnees were transported out of the base on Yangon city buses, some wearing T-shirts reading 'We love Myanmar'.
Malaysia insists all returnees agreed to voluntary repatriation from detention centers, but the UN and rights groups have raised concerns that Myanmar migrants had little choice.
The Rohingya, who make up the majority of Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, have faced significant challenges. The Rohingya fled Myanmar en masse after a military crackdown that began in 2017, which rights experts say amounted to genocide.
Malaysia announced the repatriations in July, just days after the detention of more than 100 Rohingya asylum seekers in Kuala Lumpur amid rising xenophobia against refugees, particularly the Rohingyas in Malaysia.
The Malaysian home ministry has said migrants have imposed a significant financial burden on the nation, triggered serious social crises, and created tangible security threats for the Malaysian people.
Dozens of migrants were transported on buses to a Buddhist monastery hall for immigration and health checks after the returnees arrived by Myanmar Navy ships that docked at the nearby base in Thanlyin.
"I haven't met my family yet," said Kyaw Swar Thein, 53, who worked in a coffee shop in Malaysia before he was arrested there. "I do not hope for anything," he added among the rows of men sat cross-legged on the floor, some wearing T-shirts reading 'We love Myanmar'.
"This is no time to return anyone forcibly to a country plagued by egregious human rights violations and abuses," UN rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday. The civil war in Myanmar has killed more than 100,000 people since the coup, according to monitor ACLED.
What this adds
The repatriation of Myanmar migrants from Malaysia has been questioned by rights groups, who argue that the conditions in Myanmar do not guarantee safe homecomings.
The Rohingya, who make up two-thirds of the 190,000 Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, have been particularly affected by the repatriation program.
The UN and rights groups have raised concerns about the voluntary nature of the repatriation, suggesting that migrants may have had little choice in the matter.
Background
On Sunday, nearly 1,500 Myanmar migrants were returned to their war-torn home country from Malaysia, according to Arabnews (Saudi Arabia) and Mytv (Philippines).
What's confirmed
- Nearly 1,500 Myanmar migrants from Malaysia returned to their war-torn home country on Sunday, a Myanmar official said, under an opaque repatriation scheme that rights monitors say cannot assure their safety.
- One woman said she was looking for her 19-year-old brother who was arrested in Malaysia soon after he arrived there three months ago.
- The United Nations has warned conditions in Myanmar, which has been consumed by civil war since a 2021 military coup, mean safe homecomings cannot be guaranteed as required under international law.
- Kyaw Myint, 55, said he showed up to collect three grandchildren who had been detained in Malaysia for one and a half years, and who he has not seen in six years.
- Now he is worried about them being conscripted in Myanmar -- "not only by the military but also by ethnic armed groups", he said.
- Three Myanmar Navy ships carrying the migrants docked at the Thanlyin base just before 7:30 am (0100 GMT), according to a naval official who AFP has kept anonymous as he was not authorised to speak to media.
- The ships left Malaysia on Tuesday carrying 1,476 migrants, according to the Myanmar government -- the first of 5,000 that Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says Myanmar agreed to take back.
- "Our main concern is his arrival won't be safe," said the 25-year-old sister of one migrant who had told his family he expected to be sent aboard the ships.
- Rohingya make up the majority of Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, but Kuala Lumpur has not responded to an AFP query about the number onboard.
- The UN refugee agency said this past week its staff were not allowed to meet migrants to confirm whether their decisions to return "were genuinely free and informed".
- Migrants have "imposed a significant financial burden on the nation, triggered serious social crises, and created tangible security threats for the Malaysian people", the home ministry has said.
- Hundreds of families gathered at dawn to collect their relatives outside the Myanmar Navy base in Thanlyin, where cars, taxis and buses were parked in ranks.
What's still developing
- “Our main concern is his arrival won’t be safe,” she told AFP from Malaysia, requesting anonymity for security reasons after losing contact with her brother before the vessels set sail.
- MALAYSIA has started repatriating around 1,500 Myanmar nationals as part of the first phase of its return programme that has been questioned by rights groups.
- In a report by CNN, dozens of buses arrived under police escort at the Majlis Perbandaran Manjung stadium near the Lumut naval base in northwestern Malaysia.