"Do not send the Rohingyas back to the lion's den"

PETALING JAYA: Two groups campaigning against the Rohingya persecution expressed their support for Putrajaya's insistence that Myanmar guarantee citizenship to community members prior to their repatriation from Bangladesh.

However, they both said that the citizenship guarantee may not be enough to guarantee an end to the persecution.

Tengku Emma Zuriana Tengku Azmi, Ambassador of the Rohingya European Council in Malaysia, told the FMT: "We would send the Rohingya back to the lion's den" if there were no guarantee of citizenship.

But she also said she feared that hatred of the community would remain even after her accession to citizenship. "At the moment, Myanmar does not even want to mention the word Rohingya."

Mr. Ramachelvan, who chairs the commission of the Council of the Order of Migrants, Refugees and Immigration, welcomed the statement of Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, but said that repatriation might not be the best thing for refugees until Myanmar takes steps to ensure their safety.

Myanmar must first ensure that violence against the Rohingya and other forms of persecution will not happen again, he added.

In his statement on Thursday, Saifuddin said that Malaysia would support the repatriation of refugees from Bangladesh as long as it would be "voluntary, safe and dignified" and the Myanmar government was guaranteed to accept it as a citizen.

"The granting of citizenship is an important means of ensuring the protection of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as an important guarantee for the sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar," he said.

Tengku Emma said that she thought the Rohingya would currently be safer as refugees in Bangladesh or Malaysia and she urged Asean to put pressure on Myanmar so that he would use it relentlessly reconciliation and the cessation of hate speech and anti-Muslim propaganda.

"Otherwise, Myanmar will continue to deceive the world and do the same thing over and over," she added.

She said that Malaysia, Bangladesh and other countries offering refuge to Rohingya should give Myanmar time to improve the situation.

Rohingya in Myanmar would generally be stateless. Hundreds of thousands of them fled the brutal military crackdown last August, most of them taking refuge in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh and bringing with them poignant stories of rape, murder and death. Arson.

Last month, Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on a repatriation program. The agreement came less than a week after UN investigators warned that a genocide against the Muslim minority was still ongoing.

The repatriation plan has since been postponed indefinitely.

According to official data, there are currently more than 80,000 Rohingya in Malaysia. Pakatan Harapan promised in his election manifesto to alleviate the problems he faced by ratifying the 1951 Refugee Convention.