+34Malaysia began returning 1,476 Myanmar refugees and migrants to the military regime, part of a planned 5,000 deportations, as the Myanmar military killed up to 50 civilians in an airstrike on Rakhine state.
Malaysia has begun deporting Myanmar refugees and migrants back to the military regime, with a first group of 1,476 people bussed to Lumut Naval Base and loaded onto Myanmar navy vessels.
The move is part of a planned return of 5,000 people, which rights organisations fear is only the thin edge of the wedge. The deportation went ahead despite initial hopes that a problem with one of the Myanmar regime warships would delay the plans. Civil society organisations believed the delay would prevent the group from being shipped back to war, possible prison or torture.
The information turned out to be incorrect, and by Tuesday morning the phase one group was waiting to depart for the homelands many had risked their lives to flee. Forced-migration expert Mahi Ramakrishnan, who has been trying to stop the deportations, said she was enraged and absolutely heartbroken. She told the Malaysian Home Ministry that the country was sending people to their deaths, but was told not to say such things.
The prime minister keeps saying the government will discuss a safe return, she said, but what is he talking about when the military is continuing its airstrikes. As if mocking those pleading with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim not to send the group home, the Myanmar regime chose Monday for an airstrike on a market and a bridge in Rakhine state. The attack may have killed 50 civilians and injured 58 more.
Images shared to Telegram by the Arakan Army showed bodies so damaged it was impossible to tell whether they were children or adults, men or women. More than 100,000 people may have been killed in the Myanmar civil war since a military coup ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
Anwar Invites Myanmar Leader Despite War Crimes
The regime has become increasingly barbaric following territorial losses from late 2023, showing no qualms in sending its Russian- and Chinese-made jets to blow up schools, hospitals and wedding parties. Still, the politically vulnerable Anwar, playing to Malaysia rising anti-migrant sentiment ahead of general elections, announced on September 16 that he had invited Min Aung Hlaing for a state visit.
Myanmar watchers and human rights organisations were aghast that democratic and proud Malaysia would, like Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, begin incorporating Myanmar president into the mainstream. In exchange for Malaysia friendship, Myanmar agreed to take back refugees. The slated number is 5,000, but rights organisations fear this is only the beginning. Malaysia holds hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants, many of whom have fled on rickety boats from regime-razed villages, persecution and forced military conscription after the 2021 coup.
Thousands have died at sea. The cohort of Rohingya Muslims alone in Malaysia may total more than 200,000 people, but it is impossible to know the precise breakdown of ethnicities because many migrants grappling with illiteracy, poverty, health problems and no access to transport cannot make it to Kuala Lumpur to register with the understaffed and overwhelmed local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Malaysia Refuses to Disclose Deportation Criteria
Registration is supposed to prevent arrests in ICE-like raids, but it does not allow refugees to work legally. Civil society organisations say the Malaysian government and Myanmar regime have refused to supply a list of people being returned, or reveal the criteria used in their selection and whether they are economic migrants or refugees. Malaysia claim that all in the group are returning voluntarily is dubious, to say the least.
Christian Chins, the second-largest Myanmar ethnic group in Malaysia behind the Rohingya, with 80,000 migrants, are probably among the number, says James Bawi Thang Bik, the chairman of the Alliance of Chin Refugees. People have been arrested in immigration raids while they are in a house, on the streets and at workplaces, he said. Many people say they are volunteers going back, but as a community leader, I do not believe this. I know my people.
Ramakrishnan says there may be volunteers among the 5,000 cohort, but this must be taken in context. They are treated like sub-human beings, she says. The refugees are not allowed to work. They are doing gig jobs, and they are not being paid because the employers know that they can get away with it.
Desperate Refugees Face Harsh Conditions in Malaysia
They cannot have access to structured education for their kids, and there is no access to affordable healthcare. There are some people who think I would rather just go because the situation on the ground is so difficult. Even long before the coup, the Rohingya in particular had been facing well-publicised and extreme persecution at the hands of the Myanmar military and Rakhine Buddhists.
From her sources, Ramakrishnan does not believe any Rohingya are among the first 1,476 being sent home, but she fears they are among the broader 5,000 even though the Myanmar military regime does not recognise them as citizens. The hypocrisy of Malaysia full-throated support for the Muslims of Palestine versus the hateful railing against Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar has not been lost on anyone paying attention, she says.
Malaysia deputy inspector-general of police in June went as far as to call the Rohingya a cancer, never mind that only 89 of them have been convicted of criminal offences in Malaysia since 2024. In a self-congratulatory post to X on Tuesday evening, Malaysia Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail called the outgoing migrants foreign fugitives, describing the operation as a longstanding imbalance.
theage
smh:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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