Malaysia has begun documenting and security-screening detained Myanmar nationals ahead of a repatriation plan under which Myanmar agreed to accept up to 5,000 people. Authorities have identified about 4,000 individuals across 19 detention depots and will move them to a single site for verification and checks. Malaysian and Myanmar officials stress the operation targets verified Myanmar citizens, while the role of Rohingya in the plan remains disputed. The repatriation follows smaller returns in 2021 and 2022 and occurs against the backdrop of Malaysia's large refugee population.
Malaysia Begins Screening Up To 5,000 Myanmar Nationals Ahead Of Planned Repatriation
FILE - Illegal immigrants from Myanmar rest at a temporary immigration detention center in Langkawi, Malaysia on May 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian authorities have begun documenting and security-screening detained Myanmar nationals as part of a repatriation arrangement with Myanmar, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution announced Thursday.
Saifuddin said Myanmar has agreed to accept up to 5,000 of its citizens currently in Malaysia, along with an unspecified number in Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh. Malaysian officials have identified about 4,000 Myanmar nationals across 19 detention depots; those individuals will be moved to a single facility for identity verification and security checks.
What Officials Are Saying
Saifuddin told reporters, "We will certainly meet the target of 5,000 individuals once this process is complete," and said Malaysia's foreign ministry will lead the next stage of coordination with Myanmar.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was reported to have referred to the group as Rohingya: "People ask why we do not simply send them back. Send them where? Myanmar had refused to accept them before. Now, because of our good relations with Myanmar, they have agreed to take back 5,000 from Malaysia."
However, Saifuddin did not explicitly label the group being returned as Rohingya and said the operation concerns verified Myanmar nationals with refugee status. Myanmar officials in Naypyitaw have likewise said the repatriation targets confirmed Myanmar citizens held in Malaysian detention centres and denied that the plan is a return of Rohingya whom they often describe as "Bengalis."
Han Win Aung, director-general of the ASEAN department at Myanmar's Foreign Affairs Ministry, said the effort focuses on those whose citizenship has been verified and noted earlier repatriation operations in 2021 and 2022, when Myanmar accepted more than 1,100 nationals from Malaysia. He added that final numbers and the transfer timeline remain under discussion.
Regional Context
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, a commissioner for refugee, relief and repatriation in Cox's Bazar, told The Associated Press he was not aware of any repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh. The situation is complicated by Myanmar's longstanding refusal to recognize Rohingya as one of the country's 135 lawful ethnic groups; Myanmar refers to them as "Bengalis," implying they are migrants from Bangladesh rather than citizens.
Malaysia hosts roughly 215,600 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the U.N. refugee agency, including about 126,000 Rohingya, one of the largest Rohingya communities in Southeast Asia. Malaysia is not a party to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention and generally treats refugees as undocumented migrants, which affects their legal protections and access to services.
Previous Reporting: Journalists Julhas Alam in Bangladesh and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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