February 27th, local time, 1,086 Burmese citizens repatriated by Malaysia arrived in Yangon, Myanmar, in three naval vessels.
The Myanmar Navy said that it provided medical services for the returnees, and the Myanmar Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement is responsible for placing these returnees, will arrange for their reunion with their families, and will also provide them with skills training and work opportunities.
According to Khairul Dzaimee Daud, director of Malaysia’s Immigration Bureau, these repatriates are illegal immigrants and have been detained by the Malaysian police for incomplete documents, overdue visas, passports and visa fraud.
In early February, the Burmese military offered to send three naval vessels to transport the migrants back to Myanmar. Burmese warships set out at the port of Lumot, Malaysia, on February 23 and arrived in Yangon on 27 February.
The official website of the United Nations quoted the independent human rights expert of the United Nations on the 24th as saying: “The repatriation includes women, unaccompanied minors and children as young children as three years old.
They may face a serious risk of serious human rights violations upon return to Myanmar, and the Malaysian government should not repatriate this group of people.” In response, the director of the Malaysian Immigration Bureau, Dade, said that the repatriated people did not hold UNHCR refugee cards, that they did not have displaced minorities in Rakhine State, nor asylum-seeking refugees, and that all of them left voluntarily.
