Myanmar migrants returned to war-torn nation from Malaysia — SkimNews
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- Myanmar Navy ships carried 1,476 migrants from Malaysia to Thanlyin naval base on Oct 4 after departing Sept 29 — the first batch of 5,000 returnees agreed to under PM Anwar Ibrahim's repatriation deal.
- Families gathered at dawn outside the base holding paper signs with relatives' names and photos, but a naval official announced through a megaphone they could not take returnees immediately, sending most to Yangon-region locations first.
- The UN warned that civil war conditions in Myanmar mean safe homecomings cannot be guaranteed under international law, and its refugee agency staff were not allowed to meet migrants to verify decisions were 'genuinely free and informed.'
- Returnees include mostly men along with 27 children and 79 women per Malaysian media; Myanmar says they completed sentences for immigration offences, though detainees like Kyaw Swar Thein reported a year and eight months in Malaysian detention.
- Fortify Rights' Yap Lay Sheng told AFP 'There's no telling how the regime would treat returnees,' as families like Kyaw Myint feared grandchildren could be conscripted by both the military and ethnic armed groups.
- Malaysia is already moving ahead with a second batch of more than 3,500 migrants, even as UN rights chief Volker Turk declared on Sept 29: 'This is no time to return anyone forcibly to a country plagued by egregious human rights violations.'
- Rohingya refugees — who fled a 2017 military crackdown characterized by rights experts as genocide — may be among the returnees, though Kuala Lumpur has not responded to queries about how many were aboard.
Why it matters: Malaysia is moving ahead with plans to return over 5,000 Myanmar migrants to a country experiencing civil war that has killed 100,000+ people, despite UN warnings of forced repatriation and concerns that Rohingya — who fled a 2017 genocide — may be among the returnees without verified consent.
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