Malaysia screens detained Myanmar nationals for repatriation of up to 5,000

Malaysia has begun screening and documenting detained Myanmar nationals for an agreed repatriation programme. The exercise has revived questions over Rohingya returns as Myanmar says only verified citizens will be accepted.

In Short

• Around 4,000 detainees across 19 depots will be moved for screening
• Malaysia says foreign ministry will manage transfers after documentation exercise ends
• Anwar said improved ties persuaded Myanmar to accept returns previously refused

Malaysia has begun documenting and screening thousands of detained Myanmar nationals under a repatriation programme agreed with Myanmar, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution said on Thursday. The move follows an understanding under which Myanmar has committed to accept up to 5,000 of its citizens currently in Malaysia.

Saifuddin said Malaysia had identified up to 4,000 Myanmar nationals in its 19 detention depots and would move them to a single site for security screening and documentation. He said the foreign ministry would handle the next stage of the repatriation process with Myanmar once this exercise was completed.

"We will certainly meet the target of 5,000 individuals once this process is complete," Saifuddin told reporters. He also said only Myanmar nationals with refugee status were being repatriated, though he did not explicitly identify the 5,000 individuals as Rohingya.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had said on Wednesday that those being repatriated were Rohingya refugees. "People ask why we do not simply send them back. Send them where? Myanmar had refused to accept them before. Now, because of our good relations with Myanmar, they have agreed to take back 5,000 from Malaysia," the New Straits Times quoted Anwar as saying.

Saifuddin also said Myanmar had agreed to accept an unspecified number of its citizens currently in Cox's Bazar in south-east Bangladesh. However, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, a commissioner for refugee, relief and repatriation in Cox's Bazar, told The Associated Press by phone that he was not aware of any repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh. Foreign ministry officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

In Naypyitaw, officials also rejected reports that Myanmar would accept Rohingya. Han Win Aung, director-general of the ASEAN department at Myanmar's Foreign Affairs Ministry, said the programme was focused only on verified Myanmar nationals being held in detention centres in Malaysia. "This is not about bringing back Bengalis. There are Myanmar nationals who are being held in detention centres in Malaysia for various reasons," Han Win Aung told AP. "Both sides are still at the stage of coordinating to repatriate only those whose identity as genuine Myanmar citizens has been verified."

Han Win Aung said the plan follows earlier repatriation operations in 2021 and 2022, when Myanmar received more than 1,100 of its nationals stranded in Malaysia. He added that the number of people to be repatriated and the timeline for their transfer were still under discussion.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, does not recognise the Rohingya as one of its 135 lawful ethnic minorities and instead refers to them as Bengalis, implying they are from Bangladesh and are illegally settled in Myanmar. Malaysia is home to about 215,600 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the UN refugee agency, including about 126,000 Rohingya, and the current exercise centres on screening, documentation and the planned return of verified Myanmar nationals.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends