Myanmar Migrants Repatriated from Malaysia Amid Ongoing Conflict

THANLYIN, Myanmar — Nearly 1,500 Myanmar migrants from Malaysia arrived in their war-torn home country on Sunday under a repatriation scheme that has drawn sharp scrutiny from families and rights organizations. Three ships carrying migrants docked at the Myanmar Navy base in Thanlyin just before 7:30 a.m. local time (0100 GMT), a naval official said, adding he was not authorized to speak to media. Hundreds of families gathered at dawn outside the base, where cars, taxis, and buses were parked in ranks, waiting to take relatives away, AFP journalists observed.

Kyaw Myint, 55, said he had traveled to collect three grandchildren who had been held in Malaysian detention for one and a half years, and whom he had not seen in six years. “Since they arrived in prison we lost contact with them,” he said. He expressed concern that the returnees could be forced into conscription — “not only by the military but also by ethnic armed groups,” he added.

Rights groups and family members have raised alarms about the presence of Rohingya among the returnees, noting that Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the scheme against a backdrop of rising anti-Rohingya sentiment, though this has not been confirmed. The three Myanmar Navy ships carried 1,476 migrants, the first batch of 5,000 that Anwar says Myanmar has agreed to accept back.

The United Nations warns that conditions in Myanmar — gripped by civil war since the 2021 military coup — mean safe homecomings cannot be guaranteed as required under international law. “We have no idea how his life will be back in Myanmar,” said the 25-year-old sister of one migrant, speaking from Malaysia and requesting anonymity for security reasons after losing contact with her brother before the vessels set sail. She stressed: “Our main concern is his arrival won’t be safe.”

Malaysian media reported that the arrivals included 27 children and 79 women, with the remaining 1,370 being adult men. Kuala Lumpur has not responded to an AFP query regarding the number of Rohingya on board. Rights experts note that Rohingya form the majority of Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, and that the repatriations follow the detention of more than 100 Rohingya asylum seekers in Kuala Lumpur amid escalating xenophobia.

Malaysia insists all returnees agreed to voluntary repatriation from detention centers, where Myanmar states the migrants had completed sentences for immigration offenses. However, monitor organizations such as Fortify Rights have documented dire conditions in the facilities. The UN refugee agency said its staff were not permitted to meet returnees this past week to confirm whether migrants’ decisions were “genuinely free and informed.”

Myanmar state television has broadcast footage of the migrants en route home, showing them participating in aerobics classes on the ship deck and wearing T-shirts reading: “Happy voyage back to motherland.” Malaysia is already preparing a second repatriation of more than 3,500 migrants, with the home ministry arguing that migrants have “imposed a significant financial burden on the nation, triggered serious social crises, and created tangible security threats for the Malaysian people.”

Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing, the coup leader installed as civilian president this April, is expected to visit Malaysia soon to discuss the scheme. Myanmar last month pledged that returns would be “safe and dignified,” but Fortify Rights senior specialist Yap Lay Sheng told AFP: “There’s no telling how the regime would treat returnees.”

The civil war has so far claimed more than 100,000 lives, according to the ACLED monitor. Late last month, at least 50 people were killed in a military airstrike on a marketplace in western Rakhine state. “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.

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