Malaysia has finalized the first phase of a voluntary repatriation program that will see at least 1,476 Myanmar nationals, most of them ethnic Rohingya, return home on September 29, as the government pushes ahead with a plan human rights groups have warned could endanger returnees.
The 1,476 individuals were identified by the Myanmar government through a diplomatic note dated August 13, and will be transported using two Malaysian naval warships and a Myanmar hospital ship.
The Home Ministry said the September 29 date was agreed at a coordination meeting involving the home, foreign, and defense ministries, and the National Security Council, after accounting for logistical and coordination requirements, moved back from Myanmar’s originally proposed date on August 28.
The first phase is part of the broader plan Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced in July, under which Myanmar’s military-backed government agreed to take back 5,000 Rohingya refugees amid rising tensions with local communities in Malaysia.
The ministry said a separate 4,008 individuals, mainly Rohingya, will be channeled into Malaysia’s Refugee Registration Document Program this year, while the immigration department collaborates with police to verify the identity, citizenship, and security background of detainees by year’s end.
Read More: Myanmar Agrees to Take Back 5000 Rohingya Refugees from Malaysia
As of mid-August, 10,388 Myanmar nationals were held in Malaysian immigration detention depots, though ministry stressed not all are considered refugees.
The plan follows detention of more than 100 Rohingya who had gathered outside the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, after refugees faced eviction from an informal settlement in northern Penang state.
Malaysia’s largest Rohingya rights group has urged the government to halt the plan, warning that returnees’ lives would be at risk, while Human Rights Watch has said conditions for a safe, dignified, and voluntary return to Myanmar does not currently exist.
Malaysian Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil has said Malaysia “will not return the 5,000 Myanmar refugees if they would either be persecuted or their lives would be threatened,” and the government has said it will not proceed with repatriation where safety cannot be assured.
Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not formally recognize refugee status, though it has long hosted one of Southeast Asia’s largest refugee populations, more than 215,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers, over 126,000 of them Rohingya, with more than 95 percent of the country’s refugees originating from Myanmar.
With the first ship set to depart, the coming weeks will evaluate whether Malaysia’s stated safeguards against returning refugees to danger hold up in practice, even as rights groups continue to argue that no return to Myanmar can currently be considered safe.
