FORMER MP Charles Santiago has called for a better handling of some 5,000 Rohingya refugees who have come to regard Malaysia as a temporary home after the community was forced out of Myanmar.
Malaysia cannot, in good conscience, celebrate the return of 5,000 Rohingya to Myanmar without first answering one fundamental question: return them to what, said the former Klang Member of Parliament.
"A country still engulfed in armed conflict, where the military that drove more than a million people from their homes remains in power, and where Rohingya continue to face persecution, statelessness and grave human rights abuses? "
"Are we now comfortable sending vulnerable people back into the very conditions they fled? Back to a conflict where civilians continue to bear the brunt of violence? If there are no credible guarantees of safety, dignity, citizenship and voluntary return, this is not a diplomatic achievement to shout about, but a moral failure. "
According to Santiago, Malaysia spent the past year as ASEAN Chair, engaging and rebuilding ties with Myanmar’s military leadership.
For decades, Malaysia has rightly spoken out against the persecution of the Rohingya, he said in a statement.
"We condemned atrocities, mobilised humanitarian assistance and urged the international community to act. To now facilitate returns without transparent safeguards risks abandoning the very principles we once championed."
Any forced or coerced return of refugees to a place where they face persecution would violate the internationally recognised principle of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of customary international law that binds all states regardless of whether they have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention.
He said that such a move would seriously damage Malaysia’s international standing and risk turning our country into a global pariah on refugee protection. - July 30, 2026.
