Malaysia starts screening detained Myanmar citizens
Malaysia has started documenting and screening thousands of detained Myanmar nationals as part of a repatriation program agreed with Myanmar, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution said on Thursday.
Saifuddin said Myanmar had committed to accept up to 5,000 of its citizens currently living in Malaysia and an unspecified number currently in Cox’s Bazar, a town in southeast Bangladesh. Malaysia had identified up to 4,000 Myanmar nationals in its 19 detention depots, who will be moved to a single site for security screening and documentation purposes, he said.
“We will certainly meet the target of 5,000 individuals once this process is complete,” Saifuddin told to reporters, adding that the foreign ministry will handle the next stage of the repatriation process with Myanmar.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had said Wednesday that those being repatriated were Rohingya refugees.
“People ask why we do not simply send them back. Send them where? Myanmar had refused to accept them before. Now, because of our good relations with Myanmar, they have agreed to take back 5,000 from Malaysia,” Anwar was cited as saying by the New Straits Times. However, Saifuddin, who did not explicitly identify the 5,000 individuals as Rohingya, said only Myanmar nationals with refugee status were being repatriated.
Foreign ministry officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, a commissioner for refugee, relief and repatriation in Cox’s Bazar, told The Associated Press by phone that he was not aware of any repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh. In Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar, officials also rejected reports that the Government would accept Rohingyas. Han Win Aung, director-general of the ASEAN department at Myanmar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said the repatriation program was focused solely on verified Myanmar nationals currently held in detention centres in Malaysia.
