Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says about 10,000 people have been sent back to Myanmar since January, despite safety warnings by human rights groups and the United Nations refugee agency.
Anwar told parliament on Tuesday that a number of those deported were sent back by planes arranged by the Myanmar government, while nearly 1,500 were returned by sea last week as part of a bilateral arrangement.
Anwar acknowledged concerns by rights groups and lawmakers over the potential safety risks faced by those being repatriated, especially those from the Rohingya Muslim minority, but said Myanmar authorities had given assurances that they would not be harmed upon their return.
“The conditions that we placed on Myanmar is that they must bring home their citizens,” Anwar said. “Secondly, it is that they treat their people fairly so that there are no abuses, coercion or rights violations.”
Anwar said he would continue to discuss the matter with Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing, who is due to visit Kuala Lumpur “in the next few days”.
The visit is part of a diplomatic push for legitimacy by the Myanmar leader, whose 2021 coup plunged Myanmar into civil war and who led a 2017 military crackdown that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people to flee the country.
Malaysia insists all returnees agreed to repatriation, but rights monitors have raised concerns that Myanmar refugees had little choice.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last week that its staff was not allowed to meet the Myanmar nationals to confirm whether their decisions to return “were genuinely free and informed”.
The deportations come amid escalating raids on refugee communities in Malaysia by immigration officials, which led to the detention of more than 50,000 refugees in 2026.
Rohingya make up the majority of Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, but it remains unclear how many members of the persecuted group were among those deported.
Malaysia took in about 193,000 refugees from Myanmar
While Malaysia is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention and treats refugees as undocumented migrants, it is home to about 215,600 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the UNHCR.
Myanmar has been accused of committing genocide against the Rohingya. Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) opened its first genocide case it has heard in full in more than a decade.
The UNHCR and rights groups said returnees could face persecution and forced military conscription in an active war zone. Myanmar has been embroiled in a civil war since the military seized power from the elected government in 2021.
The war has killed more than 100,000 people since the coup, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project.
Source: www.aljazeera.com
