{"id":2187,"date":"2026-08-06T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=2187"},"modified":"2026-08-06T10:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:00:07","slug":"malaysia-says-it-will-not-deport-rohingya-if-there-are-risks-to-their-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=2187","title":{"rendered":"Malaysia Says It Will Not Deport Rohingya if There Are Risks to Their Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Malaysia<\/div>
\n

An aerial view of a refugee camp in Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Credit: ID 188049626 \u00a9 Zhantu Chakma | Dreamstime.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

Malaysia\u2019s government said yesterday that it will not proceed with the planned repatriation of 5,000 Myanmar refugees if their lives are found to be at risk upon their return.<\/p>\n

Deputy Foreign Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni announced recently<\/a> that around 5,000 Myanmar nationals currently in the immigration detention depot are set to be repatriated as soon as Myanmar is ready to accept them \u2013 a fact that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed on July 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have good \u200brelations with Myanmar. They have now agreed to take 5,000 Rohingya from Malaysia,\u201d Anwar said during a campaign rally in Negeri Sembilan state.<\/p>\n

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil told a press briefing yesterday that the country\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs are currently reviewing the plan to identify the 5,000 refugees to be returned to Myanmar,<\/p>\n

\u201cMalaysia, as \u200ba responsible country, will not return the 5,000 Myanmar refugees if they would \u200beither be persecuted or their lives would be threatened,\u201d he said, as per Reuters<\/a>, adding that there were \u201cseveral matters\u201d that needed to be discussed with the authorities in Myanmar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prime \u2060Minister has taken note that we cannot send them back if their lives are threatened,\u201d he said. \u201cSo there are several matters \u200bcurrently being studied by the Foreign Ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deportation plan follows a recent upsurge of xenophobic rhetoric and public hostility toward Rohingya Muslims, particularly online. In the past few months, prominent public figures have since described the Rohingya<\/a> as \u201ccriminals\u201d and \u201cintruders\u201d and likened them<\/a> to a \u201ccancer\u201d on the country, while Rohingya refugee schools across the country \u200bhave been forced to close<\/a> due to harassment and \u2060threats. Late last month, more than 100 refugees were detained by the authorities<\/a> after gathering outside the UNHCR building in Kuala Lumpur to \u200bseek assistance, after being evicted from their settlement<\/a> in Penang state.<\/p>\n

Rohingya asylum seekers have arrived in Malaysia steadily over the past two decades, and particularly since 2017, when an ethnic cleansing campaign by the Myanmar military pushed more than 740,000 from Rakhine State into Bangladesh. They were initially welcomed by their co-religionists, but public opinion has soured in recent years as the population has continued to grow.<\/p>\n

Around 126,000 Rohingya<\/a> asylum seekers are currently registered with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kuala Lumpur, around half of the agency\u2019s total. However, Malaysia does not recognize the Rohingya as refugees, and as public sentiment has become more hostile, has tightened the enforcement of its immigration laws. Last month, Malaysia ordered<\/a> UNHCR temporarily to stop registering new refugees in the country, so that it could begin operating its own system for managing asylum-seekers.<\/p>\n

With third-country resettlement becoming more difficult, particularly due to the U.S. government\u2019s new restrictions on refugee admissions, the most likely \u201csolution\u201d is repatriation to Myanmar.<\/p>\n

But as human rights groups have pointed out, any proper investigation would conclude that there is little chance that the Rohingya will be able to return home safely. Myanmar\u2019s military-backed government continues to view Rohingya as illegal Bengali immigrants from Bangladesh, and any assurances that it provides about the safety of returnees cannot be taken at face value. In any event, most of Rakhine State is now controlled by the Arakan Army (AA), a Rakhine nationalist group that has also been complicit in attacks<\/a> on and mistreatment<\/a> of Rohingya communities.<\/p>\n

In a statement earlier this week, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Malaysia<\/a> to suspend the repatriation, declaring that \u201cconditions for safe, dignified, and voluntary return to Myanmar do not currently exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMalaysia has for many years hosted refugees from Myanmar who have fled unending oppression and atrocities by the Myanmar military,\u201d HRW\u2019s Bryony Lau said in the statement. \u201cThe Malaysian government should show regional leadership in responding to the crisis in Myanmar rather than forcibly returning people who are the targets of the junta\u2019s brutality.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An aerial view of a refugee camp in Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit: ID 188049626 \u00a9 Zhantu Chakma | Dreamstime.com Malaysia\u2019s government said yesterday that it will not proceed with the planned repatriation of 5,000 Myanmar refugees if their lives are found to be at risk upon their return. Deputy Foreign Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMalaysia Says It Will Not Deport Rohingya if There Are Risks to Their Safety - Asia Newscast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=2187\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Malaysia Says It Will Not Deport Rohingya if There Are Risks to Their Safety - Asia Newscast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An aerial view of a refugee camp in Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit: ID 188049626 \u00a9 Zhantu Chakma | Dreamstime.com Malaysia\u2019s government said yesterday that it will not proceed with the planned repatriation of 5,000 Myanmar refugees if their lives are found to be at risk upon their return. 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