Mizzima/UNHCR-Sept 2
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said 1 September that ongoing conflict inside Myanmar makes safe and sustainable returns impossible, warning it played no role in identifying or screening the 1,476 Myanmar nationals Malaysia plans to send back on 29 September. The announcement comes more than five years into a civil war triggered by the military’s February 2021 coup, during which hundreds of thousands of Myanmar nationals have sought refuge in Malaysia. Malaysia’s Home Ministry said the 1,476 were identified by the junta through a diplomatic note dated 13 August and will be transported on two Myanmar naval vessels and a hospital ship as the first phase of what it calls a “voluntary repatriation program.” Whether the returns are genuinely voluntary remains unclear. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim earlier said Myanmar had agreed to receive 5,000 Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority from Myanmar; official wording has since shifted to “Myanmar nationals identified by the Myanmar government,” with no breakdown of how many are Rohingya, other ethnic refugees, asylum seekers, or undocumented migrants. With UNHCR excluded from the process, there is no independent channel to confirm individual consent. Malaysia’s Home Ministry said 10,388 Myanmar nationals were held in immigration detention depots as of 15 August, though it noted not all are considered refugees. A separate, larger registration program covering roughly 5,000 more people is expected to conclude later this year under Malaysia’s new refugee documentation system. Neither UNHCR nor Malaysian authorities have said whether independent monitors will have access to the group after 29 September, leaving open the question of what happens to them once they arrive in Myanmar. Read more at:
