The Man Who Has Lived In Malaysia For 45 Years Is Watching His Neighbours Get Deported
Malaysia deported 1,476 Myanmar nationals on Tuesday (29 September) under a bilateral repatriation deal, as community leaders warned that refugees too afraid to leave home are now also too poor to stay inside.
- Malaysia is deporting up to 5,000 Myanmar nationals, despite UNHCR warnings that conditions remain too dangerous for safe returns.
- Refugees like 45-year Rahman Shah face intensifying hostility, fear of raids, and no legal status after decades in Malaysia.
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Malaysia began deporting its first batch of Myanmar nationals on Tuesday (29 Sep) — 1,476 people, identified by Naypyitaw itself, boarding vessels bound for a country still at war.
It is the opening wave of a broader agreement that could see up to 5,000 Myanmar nationals returned in phases.
The Home Ministry confirmed the initial list was drawn up directly by Myanmar’s government.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the programme followed bilateral negotiations, adding that enforcement must not involve abuse or humiliation.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) holds a different view.
UNHCR stated it has no operational role in the exercise and that conditions in Myanmar remain too volatile for safe returns.
The agency reiterated that any repatriation must be voluntary, fully informed and conducted under verified conditions of safety and dignity.
Rights groups have raised the spectre of non-refoulement — the international principle that forbids returning individuals to countries where they face persecution, torture or serious harm.
Myanmar’s military junta, which seized power in 2021, has enacted aggressive conscription laws.
For some of those on board, community leaders said, the destination is not home; it is a detention cell, a conscription queue, or worse.
The Man Who Has Been Here Longer Than Most Malaysians Have Been Adults
Rahman Shah has lived in Malaysia for 45 years.
He speaks fluent, effortless Malay.
He is still a refugee.
The third-generation Rohingya community leader noted that public hostility toward his community has intensified, driven by economic anxieties and coordinated online hate campaigns.
On social media, a derogatory slur comparing Rohingya to large municipal waste bins has entered common usage.
Some community members have been physically assaulted.
Others have stopped leaving home entirely — not to protest, but out of fear.
“If this continues, it will lead to a humanitarian crisis and starvation,” Rahman said.
He acknowledged that some individuals break local laws while attempting to survive, but urged against collective punishment.
@channelnewsasia Malaysia began sending home around 1,500 Myanmar nationals, most believed to be Rohingya refugees, on Tuesday (Sep 29) in the first phase of a repatriation programme that could see as many as 5,000 people returned. Malaysia says the programme is strictly voluntary, but the UN refugee agency and civil society groups have raised concerns about the safety of those returning to Myanmar, which remains gripped by civil war following a 2021 military coup. malaysia malaysianews myanmar rohingya
♬ original sound – CNA – CNA
The School Where Parents Are Too Afraid To Send Their Children
James Bawi runs a school for refugees in Kuala Lumpur — enrolment has not stopped; the fear has.
The Chin community leader said parents are increasingly reluctant to send children to class, as refugees navigate a structural impossibility: they cannot legally work, but they cannot survive without income.
“They are afraid to go outside, but they also cannot afford to stay home,” Bawi said.
As of late February, UNHCR had registered 215,600 refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia, of whom 193,824 were from Myanmar — including 64,680 children under 18 and 126,144 Rohingya.
The 1,476 departing in the first batch represent less than one per cent of that population.
A further 4,008 nationals will be channelled into a domestic registration scheme for identity verification and security screening.
For the remainder, the departures resolve nothing.
Legal status remains absent, and daily life continues under the threat of immigration raids.
Rahman said the work now is to teach refugees how to live in harmony with locals.
Until the day, he added, they are made to leave — even as social media continues to fill with postings of Malaysians confronting refugees in the streets, often while they are in the midst of working, attempting to earn a living to survive.
READ MORE: Rohingya Community In Malaysia Faces Escalating Wave Of Hate And Doxing
This article is based in part on reporting by Straits Times.
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