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Malaysian authorities have started returning nearly 1,500 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, pressing ahead with a repatriation programme that the United Nations and human rights organisations warn is unsafe and potentially life-threatening for those being sent back.
On Tuesday, dozens of buses under police escort arrived at a stadium close to the Lumut naval base in northwestern Malaysia, according to the AFP news agency. Journalists were refused access to the site, where the refugees were expected to undergo processing before being moved to the base and placed aboard ships bound for Myanmar. The operation marks the first phase of a larger plan announced earlier this year.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in July that Myanmar had agreed to accept 5,000 Rohingya returnees, and the roughly 1,500 people processed on Tuesday form part of that group. The Home Affairs Ministry stated that two Myanmar naval warships and a hospital ship would be deployed to carry out the transfer, underscoring the scale and official coordination behind the operation.
Malaysia has characterised the returns as voluntary. However, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it played no part in the process and cautioned that ongoing conflict and violence inside Myanmar mean the conditions required for safe and dignified returns simply do not exist. "Any refugee return must be voluntary, based on an informed decision, and take place in conditions of safety and dignity," the agency told Reuters.
Malaysia's Home Ministry declined to address the UNHCR warning directly, instead pointing back to its earlier assertion that the refugees were returning of their own accord. Rights advocates dispute that framing, arguing that people held in detention centres are in no position to make a free and informed choice about going back to a country they fled.
The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority, have endured repeated crackdowns by Myanmar's military. The most severe episode occurred in 2017, when a wave of violence that many rights groups have labelled genocide triggered a mass exodus, with hundreds of thousands fleeing to Bangladesh, Malaysia, India and other neighbouring countries. Myanmar's government does not recognise the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group, instead referring to them as "Bengalis" — effectively branding them as migrants from Bangladesh.
The scale of the displacement remains enormous. As of February 2026, Malaysia hosted more than 126,144 Rohingya refugees, while Bangladesh shelters the largest population, exceeding 1.2 million. The returns that began on Tuesday represent only a small fraction of those numbers, but observers warn the precedent could pave the way for further forced deportations.
Nay San Lwin, co-chair of the Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC), condemned the operation in blunt terms. "The genocide has never stopped. Sending Rohingya back to this is not repatriation," he told Al Jazeera. "It is sending people back to a killing field. We call on Malaysia to halt all returns of Rohingya to Myanmar until it is safe." He pointed to intense fighting between Myanmar's military and rebel forces, including the Arakan Army, noting that the military has lost control of much of the Rohingya homeland while both sides commit atrocities against Rohingya civilians caught in the middle.
Ro Mayyu Islam, founding chair of the Center of Rohingya Crisis Studies, based in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, drew a distinction between moving people and solving their plight. "Do not confuse repatriation with resolution," he told Al Jazeera. "Moving Rohingya from Malaysian detention centres to Myanmar does not solve the Rohingya crisis. Address the conditions that forced us to flee, and then make the return genuinely safe, voluntary and sustainable." He added that Rohingya are not seeking permanent refugee status but the right to return home with citizenship, security, dignity and fundamental rights.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also urged Malaysia to stop the returns and to disclose who was being sent back and what specific risks each individual faced. "Refugees should not be returned to places they've fled and where their lives are at risk," the medical charity said. More than 160 civil society organisations joined the call for a halt, citing ongoing violence and the danger that Rohingya could be coerced into joining armed groups amid the military's battles with the Arakan Army in Rakhine state, the region from which many originally fled.
Myanmar's government has promised that any returns will be "safe and dignified." Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has likewise said the country would not send people back if they faced persecution or threats to their lives. Yet the gap between such assurances and conditions on the ground has done little to reassure critics.
For those who have already returned, the reality has been difficult. Ismail, a 25-year-old who spoke to AFP, said he left his job at a fish market in Malaysia amid arrests and mounting hostility toward Rohingya. Now unemployed in Yangon, he depends on relatives and still does not hold full citizenship. "We are the most discriminated people," he said. In Rakhine state, a Rohingya activist identified as Mohammad expressed fear that returnees could end up in displacement camps in a region still wracked by fighting and disease.
The repatriation comes against a backdrop of increasing pressure on Rohingya in Malaysia. In July, authorities detained more than 100 people who had gathered outside UNHCR's office in Kuala Lumpur after being evicted from an informal settlement in Penang. They were released only after officials confirmed they held UN documents, AFP reported. Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not formally recognise refugee status, leaving the community with few legal protections.
Anwar has said he intends to invite Myanmar's Senior General Min Aung Hlaing — who led the military during the 2017 crackdown — to Malaysia, a move that has further alarmed rights groups already sceptical of the repatriation deal. As the ships prepare to depart, the central question remains unresolved: whether those aboard are returning willingly to safety, or being sent back into danger they fled years ago.
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