Malaysia says will not repatriate Myanmar refugees if lives are at risk
Construction workers operate at a building site against the backdrop of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wednesday. EPA-Yonhap
KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia will not send 5,000 refugees back to Myanmar if authorities conclude their lives would be at risk, a government spokesman said Wednesday, while preparations continued for the potential repatriation.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced last week that Myanmar had agreed to take back 5,000 members of the persecuted Rohingya minority, in a rare repatriation push that has prompted concern from rights groups.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, without specifying the refugees' ethnicity, said at a news briefing that "Malaysia, as a responsible country, will not send them back if they would either be persecuted or their lives would be threatened."
"The junta government in Myanmar is ready to receive them, but we will examine what the criteria are. And if appropriate, we will implement" the repatriation plan, he said.
"We cannot send them back if their lives are threatened. So there are several matters that are being looked into by the foreign ministry."
Myanmar authorities have made no public comment on the plan.
Malaysia hosts more than 215,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the U.N. refugee agency, including more than 126,000 Rohingya from Myanmar, the country's largest refugee community.
The repatriation plan was announced after Malaysian authorities last week detained more than 100 Rohingya who had gathered outside the U.N. refugee agency's office in Kuala Lumpur.
The refugees were being threatened with eviction from an informal settlement in northern Penang state.
They were later released after officials confirmed they held valid U.N. documentation.
Malaysia's home ministry has since begun documenting and screening refugees ahead of the planned repatriation, according to state news agency Bernama.
The news agency quoted Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail as saying 4,000 people in immigration detention identified for the process "will undergo screening and be placed at one depot instead of being spread across 19 depots, to facilitate the process."
Malaysia's main Rohingya rights group urged the government to halt the plan, saying their lives would be at risk if returned.
Malaysia, which shelters one of Southeast Asia's biggest refugee populations, is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not formally recognize refugee status.
AFP fact-checkers have found that Rohingya refugees in Malaysia have been targeted by online disinformation campaigns that rights advocates say are fueling xenophobia and intimidation.
Many of the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim group, escaped Myanmar during a brutal military crackdown in 2017.