Malaysia has begun repatriating around 5,000 asylum seekers from Myanmar under a controversial agreement with Myanmar’s military ruler Min Aung Hlaing, drawing strong criticism from human rights groups.
Three Myanmar navy ships are scheduled to leave Malaysia later on Tuesday carrying the first batch of 1,476 returnees, reports BBC.
Human rights organisations have condemned the move, warning that those being sent back could face violence, persecution and forced conscription into the Myanmar army.
Malaysia says the repatriation is voluntary. However, authorities have barred the UN refugee agency from accessing or screening the returnees, who have been held in detention centres.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the group would include Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim minority who have sought refuge in Malaysia in large numbers after fleeing Myanmar, where they are not recognised as citizens.
Anwar said he was responding to growing public hostility towards the country’s large Rohingya population and had little choice but to negotiate with Myanmar’s government over their return.
The policy marks a significant shift in Anwar’s position.
A former political prisoner, Anwar has previously portrayed himself as a defender of human rights and freedom and called for greater international support for the Rohingyas. Under his leadership, Malaysia has refused to recognise Min Aung Hlaing’s regime and has emerged as one of Southeast Asia’s strongest advocates for a negotiated end to Myanmar’s civil war.
Why the shift?
Two major factors have contributed to the change.
First, economic pressure on lower-income Malaysians has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, fuelling resentment towards the Rohingya community.
Second, Malaysian politics has remained highly unstable since 2018, when a historic election ended more than six decades of rule by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the country’s dominant ethnic Malay party. The election ushered in a succession of fragile coalition governments.
Changing public sentiment
Malaysians had long shown considerable sympathy for their fellow Muslims in Myanmar.
In August 2017, a brutal military campaign in Myanmar forced around three-quarters of a million Rohingyas from their homes in Rakhine State into neighbouring Bangladesh.
Since then, poor conditions in Bangladeshi refugee camps have prompted those with sufficient resources to undertake dangerous sea journeys to Malaysia in search of safety and work.
The Malaysian navy and coastguard have for years attempted to prevent Rohingya boats from reaching the country’s shores. However, many migrants entered through other routes and were tolerated for a long period.
More than 200,000 Rohingyas are now believed to live in Malaysia, with most surviving through low-paid manual work.
Public sentiment began changing during the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely affected Malaysia’s economy. As fears over the coronavirus grew, accusations against Rohingya migrants circulated widely on social media, accompanied by calls for their deportation.
The government at the time responded by taking a tougher stance, saying Malaysia could not accept more refugees and ordering raids on communities suspected of sheltering undocumented migrants.
A similar pattern has emerged in 2026.
In May, an online complaint alleged that Rohingyas had failed to properly dispose of animal waste following the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. The complaint triggered a viral social media campaign that falsely accused Rohingya leaders of demanding land and citizenship in Malaysia.
Soon afterwards, a Change.org petition calling for the expulsion of Rohingyas from Malaysia attracted more than 400,000 signatures before it was removed.
Anwar under pressure
Given Anwar’s previous reputation as a champion of liberal values, he might have been expected to challenge the growing hostility and disinformation directed at the Rohingya community.
He has said Rohingyas should be treated humanely.
“We can arrest them, but do not beat, intimidate or humiliate them,” he said in a recent podcast interview.
Human rights groups, however, have accused Malaysian officials of doing exactly that at immigration detention centres.
Despite this, Anwar maintains that the Rohingya population must leave Malaysia.
“They have clearly become a burden,” he said in the same interview. “A security burden, an economic burden and a source of hostility among the people.”
Some of Anwar’s former supporters have accused him of abandoning his principles.
Latheefa Koya, former head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, described his decision as “disgraceful, amoral, and shames the nation in the eyes of the international community”.
Anwar is facing mounting political pressure. Once described as a perpetual prime minister-in-waiting, he finally became prime minister in 2022 after forming an uneasy coalition with former political rivals in UMNO.
His popularity has since fallen sharply, while his party has lost seats in recent local elections. He must call a general election by early 2028.
“He is in a corner, at his weakest point”, says Tricia Yeoh, Director of the Asian Institute for Policy and Engagement at the University of Nottingham Malaysia.
“He has been forced to make concessions to his UMNO partners… There have been several corruption scandals, and his own party is divided. And after four years of telling voters this is what is required to maintain his fragile coalition, they are no longer willing to go along with that narrative.”
Yeoh said ethnic Malays, who account for more than half of Malaysia’s electorate, are responding to the long-standing UMNO narrative that they require special protection and support from the state.
She said such racial politics fuels fear and resentment towards outsiders.
“It’s the same narrative you hear in the rest of the world, about immigrants taking jobs, that we should not be spending our public funds on facilities for them.”
Difficult return
It remains unclear how Malaysia can repatriate Rohingyas to Myanmar when the country does not recognise them as citizens.
Rohingyas cannot travel freely within Myanmar and are permitted to live only in Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh.
However, the Arakan Army now controls most of Rakhine State, while the Myanmar air force continues to carry out bombardments there.
On Monday, a day before the planned repatriation, the Arakan Army said two bombs killed 49 people at a market in Kyauktaw.
The only location to which Rohingyas could potentially be returned is Sittwe, the state capital. But the city remains besieged and isolated, while Rohingyas there live in dire camps facing severe shortages of food and medicine.
Human rights groups also fear that men among the returnees could be forcibly recruited into the Myanmar army to fight in the country’s civil war.
Neither Malaysia nor Myanmar has explained how these serious obstacles can be overcome or how the repatriation can comply with humanitarian principles.
“We all dream of being able to return home one day,” said Nur Sadek, a Rohingya refugee rights advocate, “but we want to return because it is safe and because we choose to — not because we are forced to.
“For me, the most important thing is that Rohingya and other refugees affected by this decision are listened to and treated with dignity.”
