The Malaysian Bar has urged the Government to ensure that any plan to repatriate 5,000 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar is voluntary, informed, safe and consistent with Malaysia’s obligations under international human rights principles.
The call follows Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s recent announcement that Myanmar had agreed to accept the return of 5,000 Rohingya refugees from Malaysia. The Home Ministry has since begun screening individuals for possible repatriation.
In a statement, Malaysian Bar President Anand Raj said the Government must uphold the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of individuals to countries where they face a real risk of persecution, torture, serious harm or threats to their lives and safety.
The Bar noted that the principle is increasingly recognised as a fundamental rule of international law and said Malaysia had itself acknowledged the principle since 2015.
It pointed to a statement recorded in the Dewan Rakyat in March 2015 by then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato’ Seri Shahidan Kassim, who said refugees would not be returned to their countries of origin against their will, in line with the principle of non-refoulement.
Against this backdrop, the Malaysian Bar said the Government should disclose the key terms of the reported repatriation arrangement with Myanmar, including the screening process and safeguards that would govern any returns.
It stressed that each refugee must be assessed individually, rather than subjected to a blanket repatriation exercise, given the continuing risks faced by the Rohingya community in Myanmar.
The Bar’s concerns come amid heightened scrutiny of the treatment of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. More than 100 Rohingya asylum-seekers, including women and children, were recently taken to a police headquarters after seeking shelter outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur following their eviction from their homes.
While police said the group was taken for verification rather than detained, the Malaysian Bar argued that compelling the refugees to move to the police headquarters amounted to an arrest under the Criminal Procedure Code and that they remained entitled to constitutional protections.
It also urged the Government to establish a rights-respecting refugee protection framework through meaningful consultation with refugee communities, UNHCR and civil society, and to ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.
The Malaysian Bar said the proposed repatriation should ultimately be guided by the principle that no individual should be returned to a situation where they face a real risk of persecution, torture, genocide or other serious harm.
