Malaysia to return 1,500 Rohingya refugees next month, despite safety fears

Malaysia has finalised the first phase of a voluntary repatriation programme that will see at least 1,500 eligible Myanmar refugees return home on September 29, the government said.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced in July that Myanmar’s military-backed government had agreed to take back 5,000 members of the persecuted Rohingya minority amid rising tensions with local communities in Malaysia.

“The repatriation process will use two Myanmar naval warships and a hospital ship,” according to a Malaysia Home Ministry statement.

It said more than 4,000 individuals, primarily of ethnic Rohingya, will be channelled into the Refugee Registration Document (DPP) programme, while 5,000 others will undergo the voluntary repatriation process, as agreed with Myanmar.

There were 10,388 Myanmar nationals held at immigration detention depots by mid-August, the ministry said, with not all considered refugees.

Malaysia’s immigration department is working with the police to verify the identity, citizenship, immigration status, asylum claims and security background of those detainees by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, the government said it would not proceed with the repatriation if the refugees’ lives would be at risk upon return.

“Malaysia, as a responsible country, will not return the 5,000 Myanmar refugees if they would either be persecuted or their lives would be threatened,” Fahmi Fadzil, the Malaysian communications minister, said.