Yangon: A group of nearly 1,500 Myanmar nationals who were deported from Malaysia arrived in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon on Sunday, proceeding with a controversial repatriation drive that has drawn sharp criticism from the United Nations and international human rights organizations, who warn that the country remains too dangerous for forced returns.
The repatriation comes at a time when Myanmar remains deeply unstable, more than five years after the military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021. Since the coup, the country has been engulfed in a nationwide armed resistance, with ethnic armed organizations and People’s Defence Forces clashing with junta troops across large swathes of territory, creating one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises.
According to Myanmar’s state-run media, the 1,497 returnees, including 86 women, had been convicted in Malaysia for immigration offences, primarily for staying illegally without valid documents. Officials said the group was transported from Malaysia last Tuesday on board two Myanmar Navy warships and a hospital ship, undertaking a multi-day sea journey before docking in southern Yangon early Sunday morning. Regional government minister Nay Lin Tun confirmed their arrival to local media.
The current batch is only the first phase of a larger operation. Malaysia’s Home Ministry stated that a total of 5,000 Myanmar nationals are scheduled to be repatriated in stages. The ministry also disclosed that another 10,388 Myanmar nationals are currently being held across various immigration detention centers in Malaysia, awaiting processing and potential deportation. The scale of the operation marks one of the largest mass returns of Myanmar citizens from Southeast Asia in recent years.
The move has been strongly condemned by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, rights groups, and UN experts. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that security and humanitarian conditions inside Myanmar remain highly volatile, with returnees at risk of facing persecution, arbitrary detention, torture, and forced conscription into the military, which is desperately seeking manpower for its war against resistance forces. The military junta enacted a mandatory conscription law in 2024, and has since been conducting aggressive sweeps for young men and women.
Kelley E. Currie, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, issued a strong statement on Thursday ahead of the arrival, saying Malaysia has a legal obligation under international customary law to uphold the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to a country where they face real risk of serious human rights violations. “Under international law, the Government of Malaysia is obligated to uphold the principle of non-refoulement and prevent the return of individuals to situations where they face a real risk of persecution, torture, or other serious human rights violations,” Currie said. “In my assessment, the risk of refoulement in the present circumstances is substantial.”
Human rights activists have also raised concerns about the lack of transparency and due process in determining who qualifies for protection. Many of those detained in Malaysia may have valid asylum claims but were never given a chance to be screened by UNHCR, as Malaysia does not allow the agency full access to its immigration detention centers. Critics argue that labeling all detainees as illegal economic migrants ignores the political reality in Myanmar that has forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
A key concern remains whether the group includes Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority who have been systematically denied citizenship in Myanmar and were the target of a brutal military crackdown in 2017 that the UN described as having genocidal intent. Malaysian authorities have not released a detailed breakdown of ethnicity, and it remains unclear if any Rohingya are among those repatriated. When contacted by The Associated Press, Myanmar Foreign Ministry official Han Win Aung claimed the repatriation involved only “genuine citizens,” a term that in Myanmar’s legal framework often excludes Rohingya.
Malaysia is currently home to one of the largest refugee populations in Southeast Asia, hosting approximately 215,600 refugees and asylum seekers registered with UNHCR, of whom around 126,000 are Rohingya. Despite its long history of hosting refugees, Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, and does not have a domestic legal framework for asylum. Consequently, refugees and asylum seekers are treated as undocumented migrants under Malaysian immigration law and are vulnerable to arrest, detention, and deportation.
The repatriation is also taking place against a backdrop of growing diplomatic engagement between the two countries. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of Myanmar’s military-backed government who was sworn in as president in April this year after the junta reorganized its administration, is expected to visit Malaysia later this month. According to official sources, the visit will focus on bilateral issues including refugee and migrant worker management, border security, and trade, signaling a potential normalization of ties despite international condemnation of the junta’s human rights record.
UN agencies and aid groups are now calling for independent monitoring of the returnees inside Myanmar to ensure their safety, and have urged Malaysia to halt further deportations until a proper risk assessment and individual protection screening can be conducted in line with international standards.
