Dear Prime Minister,
United Against Inhumanity (UAI) and the signatories below call on you and your government to withdraw the government’s plan to return a group of refugees from Myanmar to their country of origin on 29 September.
UAI is also urging relevant organizations of the UN system, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to intervene with your government to ensure that the proposed repatriation does not go ahead, while conditions for safe, dignified, and voluntary return of refugees to Myanmar are not in place.
UNHCR has registered 193,824 refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar in Malaysia, comprising 126,144 Rohingya, 15,774 Chins, and 33,002 members of other ethnic groups from conflict-affected areas or fleeing persecution in Myanmar. For the large majority, this movement entailed a hazardous journey by sea and/or land. Despite Malaysia being an upper middle income country, its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar falls short of expectations and has recently not met international standards for the protection of refugees. Their legal status is tenuous, and the community has been the target of periodic crackdowns involving detention, corporal punishment, eviction and other forms of harassment.
While few details of the proposed repatriation have been released, return of any refugees to Myanmar in the circumstances currently prevailing in that country would be completely inappropriate.
The majority of refugees from Myanmar in Malaysia are Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority group who have been denied citizenship in the largely Buddhist state of Myanmar, where they have been subjected to genocide, mass expulsion and other grievous human rights violations.
Adult Rohingya in Malaysia have few livelihood options and are often forced to eke out a living by working in the unregulated labour market, while Rohingya children are barred from attending Malaysia’s public schools. Political and popular hostility to the Rohingya has been growing in recent months, inflamed by social media posts unfairly accusing Rohingya refugees of criminal and anti-social behaviour.
In July, your government announced that 1476 refugees from Myanmar would return to their country of origin, purportedly on a voluntary basis on 29 September. The government stated that Myanmar’s military junta had agreed to take back 5000, approximately half of the 10,000 Myanmar refugees currently in Malaysian immigration detention centres, and designated as members of Malaysia’s refugee community ‘authorized’ to return to Myanmar.
Given the extreme pressures currently being placed on the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar, UAI does not believe that any return of refugees at the present time would be voluntary in nature. As such, it would violate the internationally recognized principle of non-refoulement, which prevents refugees from being returned to a place where their life and liberty would be at risk.
Such a risk evidently exists in Myanmar, where the junta is engaged in a vicious war against its own people, including a variety of ethnically-based armies.
While the Myanmar junta has said that a small proportion of Malaysia’s refugee population would be allowed to return, it has given no indication as to where they might settle or what guarantees would be offered for their safety and livelihoods.
Rohingya refugees in Malaysia and throughout South and South-East Asia have repeatedly expressed their desire to return to Myanmar, provided that they can do so in a safe, dignified and voluntary manner, with full recognition of their citizenship and respect for their human rights.
Rohingya community groups based in Malaysia have made it clear that those conditions do not currently exist. They have called for the planned repatriation to be suspended, and for your government to consult with UNHCR and refugee representatives before proceeding with any returns. In the words of one of their number, “we are stateless. There is no way we can return home safely when we face ongoing genocide back home.”
UNHCR itself has stated that conditions in Myanmar are not conducive to refugee returns, and has made it clear that the organization will have no involvement in the proposed repatriation.
In these circumstances, we would urge you to abandon the scheduled repatriation of refugees from Myanmar, and to acknowledge their continuing need for international protection. We would also urge you to allow refugees from Myanmar to remain in the country with a secure legal status enabling a range of rights and protections, including the right to work and access to education and other services.
Accept, Excellency, the assurances of our highest consideration.
Signed on behalf of United Against Inhumanity (UAI) by the individuals listed below,
a group whose signatories include former United Nations Assistant Secretaries-General, former ambassadors and senior UN and humanitarian officials, and leading academics working on refugee protection and Myanmar:
SIGNATORIES
Laetitia van den Assum
Former Ambassador and Member of the Rakhine State Advisory Commission
Martin Barber
Secretary, International Executive Committee, UAI and former Director of UN Mine Action Service
Mark Bowden
Former UN Assistant Secretary General
Jeff Crisp
Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford
Antonio Donini
Co-founder and Member of the International Executive Committee of UAI
Sumayya Ferdous
Convener of the UAI Task Team on Myanmar
Maggie Heraty OBE
Hon Sec UAI in the UK & Advisor on Humanitarian Logistics
Catriona Jarvis
Director and Chair of Trustees, Methoria
Ian Martin
Former United Nations Official
Professor Kirsten McConnachie
School of Law, University of East Anglia, UK
Salem Mezhoud
Vice-Chair, International Executive Committee of UAI
Michael Mosselmans
Co-chair of UAI in the UK and Head of Humanitarian Division, Christian Aid
Christine Mougne
Former UNHCR Staff
Norah Niland
Co-founder of United Against Inhumanity, Former Director Human Rights UNAMA
Sir Charles Petrie
Former United Nations Assistant Secretary General
Jean-Baptiste Richardier
Co-founder and Member of the International Executive Committee of UAI
Patricia Rogers
Chair, United Nations Association, London and South East Region
Gerald Sousa Mendes
UAI and Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes – General Council
Frederick Spielberg
Former Humanitarian Specialist, UNICEF, UNDP, DHA
