Malaysia says 5,000 Myanmar refugees won't be sent back if at risk

Malaysia will not send 5,000 refugees back to Myanmar if authorities conclude their lives would be at risk, government spokesman Fahmi Fadzil said Wednesday, while preparations continued for a possible repatriation.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said last week that Myanmar had agreed to take back 5,000 members of the Rohingya minority. The plan has raised concern among rights groups.

Fahmi, Malaysia's communications minister, did not specify the refugees' ethnicity at a briefing. He said Malaysia would not send them back if they would be persecuted or if their lives would be threatened.

“The junta government in Myanmar is ready to receive them, but we will examine what the criteria are,” Fahmi said. “We cannot send them back if their lives are threatened.”

Myanmar authorities have made no public comment on the plan.

Malaysia hosts more than 215,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the UN refugee agency, including more than 126,000 Rohingya from Myanmar. Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not formally recognise refugee status.

The repatriation plan was announced after Malaysian authorities detained more than 100 Rohingya who had gathered outside the UN refugee agency's office in Kuala Lumpur last week. They were later released after officials confirmed they had valid UN documentation.

State news agency Bernama quoted Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail as saying 4,000 people in immigration detention identified for the process would be screened and placed at one depot instead of being spread across 19 depots.

Malaysia's main Rohingya rights group urged the government to halt the plan, saying lives would be at risk if people were returned. Many Rohingya, a mostly Muslim group, fled Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.