Malaysia has sent nearly 1,500 Myanmar refugees and migrants back to a country embroiled in civil war, despite warnings from the United Nations refugee agency and human rights groups that the repatriations may not be safe.
The 1,479 returnees arrived in southern Yangon early on Sunday after being transported from Malaysia aboard two navy warships and a hospital ship, according to Nay Lin Tun, a regional government minister.
The group is the first part of a planned return of 5,000 Myanmar nationals. Malaysia’s Home Ministry says more than 10,300 others remain in immigration detention centres.
Kuala Lumpur maintains that those sent back agreed to return voluntarily. But the UN refugee agency said its staff had not been allowed to meet the detainees to establish whether their decisions were “genuinely free and informed”.
Rohingya people account for most of the refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar in Malaysia, although it is not clear how many Rohingya were among those returned.
Concerns over Myanmar repatriations
Rights groups have warned that returnees could face persecution or forced military conscription in an active war zone. Myanmar has been fighting a civil war since the military seized power from the elected government in 2021.
Yap Lay Sheng, a senior human rights specialist with Fortify Rights, said: “There’s no telling how the regime would treat returnees.”
Myanmar has pledged that the returns will be “safe and dignified”. However, the country has been accused of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority, and the International Court of Justice opened its first full genocide case in more than a decade earlier this year.
Malaysia carried out the deportations amid escalating immigration raids on refugee communities. More than 50,000 refugees were detained in the country during 2026, while rising anti-refugee sentiment has particularly affected the Rohingya.
Malaysia is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention and treats refugees as undocumented migrants. About 215,600 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with the UN refugee agency in the country, including more than 126,000 mainly Muslim Rohingya.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the repatriation programme in July. Malaysia is also preparing to return a second group of more than 3,500 refugees and migrants, saying they have created financial, social and security burdens.
The conflict in Myanmar has killed more than 100,000 people since the coup, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project. Min Aung Hlaing, the military leader installed as civilian president in April, is expected to visit Malaysia soon for talks on the repatriation scheme.
