Malaysia begins deporting 1,476 Myanmar nationals despite UN warning that country remains unsafe

From the Newshound archive · first published 29 September 2026.

Malaysia has launched the opening phase of a repatriation drive, sending Myanmar nationals home aboard three vessels — a hospital ship and two Myanmar navy warships — in defiance of objections from the UN refugee agency and a large coalition of human rights organisations. The UNHCR says conditions in Myanmar "do not support the safe and sustainable return of refugees" and had no role in vetting those selected for return. Malaysia's Home Ministry acknowledged the operation was under way but offered nothing beyond what it had said in its August statement.

Myanmar has been in civil war since a 2021 military coup, with fighting across multiple frontlines — the conditions those being deported are returning to.

Malaysia hosts roughly 215,600 UNHCR-registered refugees and asylum seekers, among them some 126,000 Rohingya Muslims, yet classifies all of them as undocumented migrants because it has not signed the UN Refugee Convention.

The 1,476 people who departed Monday represent only the first wave of a wider plan to repatriate up to 5,000 Myanmar nationals currently held in immigration detention depots across the country.