Malaysia has begun sending nearly 1,500 Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, describing their return as voluntary despite warnings from the United Nations and rights groups that Myanmar remains unsafe for them. Dozens of buses arrived under police escort at a stadium near the Lumut naval base in northwestern Malaysia on Tuesday, the news agency reported. Journalists were barred from the grounds.
The passengers were expected to be processed before being taken to the base and transported to Myanmar by ship. The Myanmar army has repeatedly cracked down on the country’s Rohingya minority, including a wave of violence in 2017 that many rights groups have described as genocide, and which set off a major refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, Malaysia, India and other neighbouring nations. Myanmar does not officially recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic community with local roots, instead describing them as “Bengalis” — in effect, calling them Bangladeshi migrants.
As of February 2026, Malaysia had more than 126,144 Rohingya refugees. Bangladesh hosts the most Rohingya refugees — more than 1.2 million. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in July that Myanmar had agreed to take back 5,000 Rohingya, leaving a question about who is being sent back.
The nearly 1,500 picked for repatriation on Tuesday are part of the group. The Ministry of Home Affairs said two Myanmar naval warships and a hospital ship would be used. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had no role in the operation and warned that continuing conflict and violence in Myanmar meant conditions for safe and dignified returns did not exist.
Malaysia’s Home Ministry declined to comment on the warning, referring to its earlier statement that the returns were voluntary. Rights advocates question whether people held in detention can freely choose to return to a country they fled. Sending Rohingya back to this is not repatriation,” Nay San Lwin, cochair of the Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC), a group representing the Rohingya, told Al Jazeera.
We call on Malaysia to halt all returns of Rohingya to Myanmar until it is safe.” He argued that Malaysia’s decision to send refugees back to Myanmar came at a time when intense fighting was taking place between the army and rebel groups, including the Arakan Army. Both the military and the Arakan Army are committing atrocities against the Rohingya,” he said. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has urged Malaysia to halt the returns and disclose who was being sent back and what risks each person faced.
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