Safety fears follow Myanmar returns
Concerns over human rights and the safety of vulnerable migrants have intensified after nearly 1,500 Myanmar nationals were returned from Malaysia to their conflict-hit homeland on Sunday, despite warnings from the United Nations and rights organisations that safe and genuinely voluntary repatriation cannot be guaranteed.
Three Myanmar Navy ships carrying 1,476 migrants arrived at a naval base in Thanlyin, near Yangon, after departing Malaysia on Tuesday.
The returnees were later taken by bus to a Buddhist monastery hall for immigration and health checks, while hundreds of relatives gathered outside the naval base seeking to reunite with family members.
The repatriation is part of a broader arrangement under which Myanmar has agreed to receive 5,000 migrants from Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur says all those returned agreed to voluntary repatriation from detention centres.
However, the UN and human rights organisations have questioned whether the returns were genuinely voluntary, warning that returnees could face persecution, forced conscription and other serious rights violations amid Myanmar’s continuing civil war.
The UN refugee agency said its staff had not been allowed to meet the migrants to determine whether their decisions to return were genuinely voluntary and based on adequate information.
The United Nations has also warned that the ongoing conflict and widespread abuses in Myanmar make it impossible to guarantee safe returns, as required under international law.
Among those arriving was 53-year-old Kyaw Swar Thein, who had worked at a coffee shop in Malaysia before being arrested and spending one year and eight months in detention.
He said he had suffered from scabies while in detention and wanted to return home, but remained uncertain about what awaited him.
“I do not hope for anything,” he said at the monastery hall, where the returnees sat in rows on the floor.
Immediate family reunions were not allowed for most of the returnees. Hundreds of relatives had arrived outside the naval base early in the morning, carrying handwritten signs with photographs and names of family members.
A naval official told the waiting relatives that the returnees would first be transported to different locations across the Yangon region before they could meet their families.
A woman searching for her 19-year-old brother said he had been arrested in Malaysia only three months after arriving there.
Although the family had seen his name on the list of returnees, they were unable to enter the base to locate him.
“We saw his name on the list of returnees but we couldn’t go inside to find him,” she said, declining to give her name for security reasons.
The return programme has also raised particular concerns over the possible repatriation of Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority that fled Myanmar in large numbers following the military crackdown in 2017. Rights experts have described the crackdown as genocide.
Rohingya make up the majority of Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, however, has not disclosed how many Rohingya are among those being repatriated.
The returns come amid growing anti-refugee sentiment in Malaysia, particularly towards the Rohingya, after Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced in July plans to return thousands of Myanmar nationals.
Kyaw Myint, 55, said he was worried that three of his grandchildren, who had spent more than a year in detention in Malaysia, could face forced conscription after returning to Myanmar, either by the military or ethnic armed groups.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has warned against returning people to a country where they could face serious human rights violations and abuses.
“This is no time to return anyone forcibly to a country plagued by egregious human rights violations and abuses,” he said on Tuesday.
Rights organisations have similarly questioned assurances from Myanmar’s military authorities, who pledged last month that repatriations would be conducted in a “safe and dignified” manner.
Yap Lay Sheng, a senior human rights specialist at Fortify Rights, said the fate of the returnees remained uncertain.
“There’s no telling how the regime would treat returnees,” he told AFP.
Myanmar authorities have said the returnees had completed their sentences for immigration offences in Malaysia. Monitoring organisations, including Fortify Rights, have reported severe conditions in Malaysian detention centres.
The repatriation is taking place against the backdrop of a civil war that erupted after the military coup in February 2021.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).
The violence has continued to escalate, with a military airstrike late last month reportedly killing 50 people.
Meanwhile, Malaysia is preparing to repatriate a second group of more than 3,500 Myanmar migrants, citing the financial, social and security pressures associated with hosting them.
Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing, the coup leader who was installed as civilian president in April, is expected to visit Malaysia soon for discussions on the repatriation programme.
The latest returns have therefore placed renewed focus on the protection of Myanmar’s vulnerable migrant population, particularly Rohingya refugees.
Rights groups argue that without independent monitoring and safeguards, repatriation could expose returnees to further violence, persecution and other serious human rights abuses.
