Nationality For All, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, the Global Movement Against Statelessness, the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, and the Statelessness and Dignified Citizenship Coalition Asia Pacific have issued a joint statement calling for urgent action to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of Rohingya people in Malaysia.
The statement responds to recent developments in Malaysia, including the detention of 110 Rohingya refugees following forced evictions, the suspension of UNHCR refugee registration, plans to pursue the return of 5,000 Rohingya people to Myanmar, and growing hate speech, harassment, school closures, and violence against Rohingya communities.
Any return to Myanmar under current conditions would expose Rohingya people to continuing risks of genocide, persecution, arbitrary detention, torture, and other serious human rights violations. The root cause of their persecution also remains unresolved: Myanmar continues to deny the Rohingya nationality and equal citizenship rights.
The key recommendations include:
- Immediately halting any deportation, transfer, or return of Rohingya to Myanmar in accordance with the principle of non-refoulement
- Restoring UNHCR’s uninterrupted access to refugee registration and international protection
- Ensuring transparency, procedural safeguards, data protection, and meaningful legal protection under Malaysia’s new Dokumen Pendaftaran Pelarian scheme
- Preventing and responding to hate speech, discrimination, forced evictions, harassment, and violence targeting Rohingya communities
- Ending the arbitrary detention of Rohingya refugees and ensuring access to education, healthcare, and livelihoods
- Ensuring the meaningful participation of Rohingya representatives in decisions concerning their future
- Placing the restoration of Rohingya nationality and citizenship rights at the centre of ASEAN’s engagement on Myanmar
- Rejecting any action that legitimises Myanmar’s military junta or facilitates returns before conditions for voluntary, safe, dignified, and rights-based return exist
📄 Read the full statement here.
For media enquiries, please contact:
- Nicole Fong, Nationality for All: [email protected]
- Tiana Xavier, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion: [email protected]
- Thandeka Chauke, Global Movement Against Statelessness: [email protected]
