'They Are Crying': Rohingya and Myanmar Refugees in Malaysia Live in Fear as Deportations Begin and Raids Intensify

Malaysia deported nearly 1,500 refugees to Myanmar on September 29, sparking fear among tens of thousands of others in the country. With immigration raids now happening up to 50 times a day, UNHCR underfunded and stretched thin, and violence continuing in Myanmar, refugees say they do not know who will be next.

Photo Source: File Photo: Reuters/Hasnoor Hussain

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: The phone has not stopped ringing. Raf, a leader of refugees from Myanmar living in Malaysia, receives more than 100 calls a day. The calls follow a common pattern.

"They are crying, asking me to do something," Raf told Al Jazeera.

On September 29, the Malaysian government deported nearly 1,500 refugees to Myanmar, part of its stated plan to send back at least 5,000 as part of a deal with Myanmar's military government. That move, from a country that had long taken in refugees from Myanmar, has sent shockwaves through a community already living on the edge. Tens of thousands of other refugees from Myanmar remaining in Malaysia are now asking one question: who might be next?

Raids Every Single Day

The deportation did not happen in isolation. It came during an escalating wave of immigration raids on refugee communities across Malaysia, which have led to the detention of more than 50,000 refugees this year alone. According to those working with refugees, the frequency of raids increased sharply after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the repatriation agreement with Myanmar in June.

"There has been a sharp increase. Raids are happening every single day. There are up to 50 raids or more happening every day," said Heidy Quah, founder and executive director of the Malaysian nonprofit Refuge for the Refugees.

Malaysia's Minister of Home Affairs Saifuddin Nasution told local media that the government conducted more than 9,700 such operations from the beginning of this year until September 17, an average of 37 operations a day. More than 10,000 Myanmar nationals are currently held in Malaysia's immigration detention centres, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Myanmar community leaders in Malaysia told Al Jazeera the raids this year appear to have targeted locations highlighted in anti-refugee videos on social media, in which content creators filmed refugee-populated areas and portrayed them as hubs of chaos. The videos have been shared thousands of times on platforms including Threads, TikTok and Facebook.

126,000 Rohingya Among Those at Risk

Malaysia is home to more than 215,000 refugees, according to UNHCR. Nearly 194,000 are from Myanmar, including more than 126,000 Rohingya, who have been the target of widespread hate speech on social media in recent months.

Myanmar community leaders confirmed that none of the nearly 1,500 people deported on September 29 have been identified as Rohingya. Instead, many are from Myanmar's other ethnic minorities, who are more likely to hold valid national identification documents.

The reason is both legal and political. Myanmar officially treats the Rohingya as Bangladeshi immigrants despite the community's deep and documented roots in the country. The Myanmar military has repeatedly carried out violent crackdowns against the Rohingya, including in 2017 when a wave of mass killings, rape and village burnings drove hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh, Malaysia, India and other countries. Rights groups and international bodies have described the 2017 campaign as genocide.

"The Rohingyas are a problem for deportation because Myanmar denies their citizenship," Raf said. "So I don't think that Myanmar will agree and accept all those Rohingyas."

For now, that denial offers the Rohingya a form of involuntary protection from this particular wave of deportations. But it does not protect them from the daily raids, detention or the climate of fear that has settled over refugee communities across Malaysia.

Shrinking Support at the Worst Possible Time

The intensifying hostility toward refugees in Malaysia has collided with a sharp decline in the capacity of organisations that support them.

The closure of the United States Agency for International Development in July 2025 severely reduced resources for organisations helping refugees with basic needs, including healthcare. Staff cuts followed across UN organisations, including UNHCR Malaysia, reflecting global retrenchments driven by a deepening funding crisis. UNHCR said on the day of the deportations that it faces a $5.79 billion funding gap and had received only 32 percent of the funds it needs this year.

"Then slowly, United Nations organisations were being defunded, and even within UNHCR in Malaysia, they lost a lot of staff," Quah told Al Jazeera.

The consequences are being felt on the ground. Even refugees holding valid UNHCR cards are being arrested and held in detention for up to 14 days while their cards are verified. Quah described one case in which an asylum-seeking woman detained before a scheduled UNHCR appointment was held even after UNHCR confirmed she was seeking asylum.

"Even UNHCR cardholders are arrested and remanded for about 14 days while cards are verified," she said.

Deported Into Ongoing Violence

Rights groups and UNHCR have urged Malaysia to halt the deportations, pointing to continuing violence in Myanmar.

The day before the September 29 deportations, an airstrike by Myanmar's military killed at least 33 people in Rakhine State, the historical homeland of the Rohingya. The Arakan Army said the victims included vendors, shoppers and pedestrians. In June, the United Nations said Myanmar's military was responsible for more than 700 civilian deaths over a six-month period beginning in August 2025.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, SUHAKAM, said that while Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, the principle of non-refoulement has become part of customary international law and Malaysia is therefore bound to abide by it. Non-refoulement protects people from being returned to a place where they face a real risk of persecution, torture or other serious harm.

SUHAKAM also drew particular attention to the 27 children included in the deportation, some reportedly as young as eight years old. "No child should be returned to danger. Their safety, dignity and best interests must come first," it said.

Myanmar community leaders in Malaysia told Al Jazeera the ships that departed on September 29 were expected to arrive in Yangon on Sunday. Even those allowed to leave the port upon arrival may need to remain in Yangon for months or years because conditions make travel across the country unsafe, one community leader said.

Questions Over 'Voluntary' Returns

Rights groups have also challenged the Malaysian government's description of the deportations as voluntary.

UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Edem Wosornu said that while authorities described the returns as voluntary, those deported had been held in immigration detention beforehand. "This raises serious questions about whether decisions to return were genuinely free and informed," she said.

UNHCR told Al Jazeera it was not involved in the return process and had no access to the individuals concerned, and was therefore not in a position to independently verify the voluntariness of their decisions.

The Malaysian government said individuals were selected based on a list of names provided by Myanmar's government through an official diplomatic note. SUHAKAM said that any voluntary decision must be determined by an independent body such as UNHCR, not by the Immigration Department.

The Malaysian branches of Amnesty International and Asylum Access said in a joint statement that Malaysia's new Refugee Registration Document programme, which is supposed to help register refugees and provide them with official documentation, must not be used to fast-track unlawful deportations.

For Raf, the answer is simpler. If Malaysia is going to register refugees, it must mean something.

"If work, education and healthcare are provided, I think that's a good solution for temporary refugees staying here," he said.

For now, his phone keeps ringing.

Reporting by Samantha Ho / Al Jazeera. Additional editing by The Daily East. Names of refugees have been changed to protect their identities.