Fear Over Malaysia’s Plan to Send Back Rohingya Migrants to Myanmar

The announcement has sent panic through a community that fled its country’s brutal military rule, civil war, religious persecution or some combination of the three. Reporting from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Two years ago, Muhiduzamal fled religious persecution and civil war in his native Myanmar, traversing land and sea for four months before arriving in Malaysia. As at home, he found work in a paddy field, and moved into a traditional Malay home, a wooden structure on stilts. He tried to register as a refugee with a United Nations agency in Malaysia, and was waiting for an appointment. But without that status, Malaysia considered Mr.

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Scoop News DeskMalaysia · Published Friday, August 28, 2026 at 9:04 AM UTCUpdated Saturday, August 29, 2026 at 9:34 AM UTC

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Rohingya fear the worst: They are stateless in their own country and have suffered what the United Nations and the United States have determined was a genocide conducted by the Myanmar military. “It is better to kill us in Malaysia rather than send us back to Myanmar,” said Mohammad, 25, who has refugee status and lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, but asked to be identified only by part of his name while discussing his brother’s case. “My brother will be killed if he is sent back, as the junta in Myanmar will send him to the frontline to fight.” Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of people from Myanmar have sought refuge in Malaysia in the hope of escaping ethnic cleansing and a brutal junta. In June, he was arrested and sent to a detention center, his brother said.

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