The Home Ministry should be careful about the language it uses to describe Myanmar nationals in Malaysia. People who have fled genocide, conflict, or religious persecution are not “foreign fugitives” simply because they lack regular immigration status.
Immigration status and criminality are not interchangeable.
The government says the repatriation programme is voluntary, orderly and based on individual consent. But a genuinely voluntary return requires more than obtaining a signature.
It requires that people are able to make an informed decision, free from coercion, and with a proper assessment of the risks they face upon return.
It is particularly troubling that UNHCR has stated that it was not involved in Malaysia’s repatriation process, while warning that Myanmar remains unsafe for refugee returns.
There also needs to be transparency about consultation. Where is the meaningful engagement with UNHCR, SUHAKAM, refugee-led organisations, civil society organisations that have worked directly with these communities for years?
These organisations possess information about individual vulnerabilities, family circumstances, protection concerns and conditions in Myanmar that government agencies cannot simply assume they know.
If the government has conducted comprehensive screening and concluded that every person being returned can safely go back, it should publish the methodology, safeguards and independent verification mechanisms behind that conclusion.
And if the government’s justification is that Myanmar nationals represent a “financial burden” or a “security threat”, Malaysians deserve evidence: What is the actual public expenditure? What specific security threats are being referred to?
And are they more of a threat that the two million undocumented migrant workers in the country since the last 20 years or so.
This is not about asking Malaysia to abandon immigration enforcement or national sovereignty. It is about insisting that national sovereignty and the rule of law must operate alongside due process, evidence and protection from return to danger.
The return of 1,476 people has now begun. That makes transparency and independent scrutiny even more urgent.
It also makes it increasingly difficult for Malaysia to claim the moral authority to speak forcefully about the forced displacement of Palestinians, or to champion the rights of refugees elsewhere, while returning vulnerable people to a country where they would likely be detained, tortured, forcefully conscripted or killed. – September 30, 2026
Charles Santiago is former Klang MP