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Malaysia has begun sending Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, marking a significant shift in a country that has long been one of the few places in Southeast Asia where members of the persecuted Muslim minority could find relative safety. On Tuesday, authorities repatriated an initial group of nearly 1,500 Rohingya, the first phase of a plan announced by the government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to return 5,000 Myanmar nationals. The move has drawn sharp criticism from the United Nations and international human rights organizations, who warn that conditions in Myanmar make any return dangerous.
The Rohingya are widely regarded as one of the world's most persecuted minorities and are effectively stateless, as Myanmar refuses to recognize them as citizens. In 2017, the Myanmar military launched a brutal crackdown in Rakhine state that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee, most of them to neighboring Bangladesh. The campaign involved the widespread destruction of Rohingya homes and the killing of thousands of people, and it has been widely condemned as tantamount to genocide. A genocide case brought by The Gambia is currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, with a verdict expected next month or in November.
Malaysian officials have insisted that all those being returned are volunteers and that their safety and wellbeing are guaranteed. Critics, however, argue that such assurances are meaningless given the ongoing civil war in Myanmar, which erupted after the military seized power in a 2021 coup and removed the democratically elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Fighting has continued across much of the country, including in Rakhine state, where Myanmar's military recently launched an air strike on a market that killed at least 33 people.
For the estimated 125,000 Rohingya currently living in Malaysia, the country's decision represents a painful reversal. Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and therefore does not grant the Rohingya formal refugee status. Nevertheless, it has historically taken a tolerant attitude toward their presence, allowing them to remain without official documentation. Many Rohingya arrived after perilous journeys on overcrowded boats, and they have relied on the goodwill of ordinary Malaysians, who share religious and cultural ties with the community.
That goodwill has allowed a fragile existence to take root. Rohingya children, barred from formal education, attend informal learning centers run by NGOs and supported by donations. One such center in a quiet Kuala Lumpur neighborhood teaches the Quran alongside a standard academic curriculum, with students of mixed ages grouped together out of necessity. Riyadh Al Haq, a Rohingya human rights activist whose organization runs the center, explained that without outside support, the community would have no way to educate its young.
Access to other basic services is similarly limited. Rohingya families cannot use Malaysia's healthcare system, and adults are not permitted to work formally. Instead, they depend on informal employment, taking jobs at car washes, in restaurant kitchens, and with courier services. Despite these hardships, many Rohingya have considered life in Malaysia preferable to what they left behind. "Because of their kindness, our people can stay in this country. They can live here. We are more safe than in Myanmar," Riyadh told Al Jazeera, referring to the Malaysian public.
That sense of relative safety now appears increasingly fragile. Public attitudes have shifted in recent years amid economic pressures and viral social media misinformation campaigns. Coordinated online petitions calling for the expulsion of refugees and other marginalized groups have collected hundreds of thousands of signatures. Nur Sadek, executive director of Rohingya Rights Response, has been monitoring social media content that spreads hateful and hurtful messaging about the Rohingya, including clips in which content creators mock refugees to their faces and complain about how they allegedly smell.
Other videos show self-styled vigilantes stopping and questioning Rohingya passers-by in the street, a sign of growing hostility that many in the community find alarming. The Malaysian government's repatriation plan has thus renewed attention on the precarious position of the Rohingya, who now face pressure to leave a country where they were once tolerated but never fully protected. With the ICJ verdict pending and civil war still raging in Myanmar, critics say the returns could place thousands of people in grave danger, even as Kuala Lumpur frames the operation as voluntary and humane.
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