Malaysia recently returned 1,500 Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, despite concerns for their safety. The persecuted Muslim minority is essentially “stateless” in its own country. Myanmar does not recognize them as citizens, even though many have lived there for generations, before being violently expelled.
Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim, the international president of the group Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, describes the dangers that returning Rohingya will face, as well as international efforts to assist them.
Rohingya refugees gather in the rain, with a flag of Myanmar, center, to mark the seventh anniversary of their mass exodus at their refugee camp at Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh, Aug. 25, 2024.Shafiqur Rahman/AP/File photo
Carolyn Beeler: Tell us about this group of Rohingya who were sent back to Myanmar last week.
Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim: The Rohingya are stateless, and they originate in Myanmar. They’ve been living there for centuries. There is, at root cause, an ethnic and religious exclusion. They’re Muslim, originally, and the Buddhist state of Myanmar doesn’t recognize them as their own. There have been a series of expulsions — very violent expulsions — out of Myanmar of Rohingya over the years, the last big one in 2017, across the border into Bangladesh. There’s a constant stream of Rohingya seeking safety by leaving Myanmar, heading to other parts of the world, Malaysia included. The other nuance underneath this is that many countries in Southeast Asia haven’t signed up to the Refugee Convention. So, you can’t actually physically claim refugee status in Malaysia, or in many Southeast Asian countries. They’re undocumented, not because they want to be, but because they simply cannot document.
In this file photo, Rahima Kato, a Rohingya woman displays identity cards of her family members issued by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at their makeshift camp on the outskirts of Jammu, India, March 9, 2021.Channi Anand/AP/File photo
I understand there is some dispute about whether this group is all, or mostly Rohingya?
Malaysia’s pursuing a policy of return to Myanmar and we’re absolutely clear: It is not safe there. There is an ongoing civil war that is not just centered on Rakhine [State], which is where the Rohingya are from, but also elsewhere in the country. So, this return is not safe. We conducted a survey of Rohingya in Bangladesh, in the camps where we’re working in the east in Cox’s Bazar. Some 84% of respondents said they don’t feel safe returning to Myanmar at this time.
An abandoned boat that carried Rohingya refugees is seen on Langkawi Island, Malaysia, Jan. 19, 2025.Azneal Ishak/AP/File photo
These folks who are returning from Malaysia, are they going back voluntarily, or what does their removal look like?
On the whole, it’s not a voluntary return. They’re at risk, not only of direct violence — simply because of who they are — in Myanmar, but also forced conscription into the army or the militia, to either side, really. Even for us to work in Myanmar has been very hard in the last few years, and we’re actually facing bureaucratic impediments that mean that our capacity to do the scale of humanitarian response that we would wish is actually reduced.
What conditions will these folks who are being sent back from Malaysia be living in? Is there a plan for where they will live or what kind of housing setup they might have?
So, that dynamic is still there. There is a non-state armed actor, there’s a state armed actor in a conflict, and these people stand the chance of being forced, conscripted, into either side, just as — I don’t want to say cannon fodder — but just another person to supply themselves, in terms of fighting this war. This isn’t something that a person should be sent back into.
An aerial view of a Rohingya refugee camp, home to over a million of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority, covers the land in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov. 25, 2025.Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP/File photo
I want to step back and get a bit of the global picture of where Rohingya people are right now. You mentioned many are in Bangladesh, in camps in Cox’s Bazar. Where else are the Rohingya who’ve been displaced from Myanmar and what kind of status do they have?
So, the largest concentration of Rohingya people is in eastern Bangladesh, in Cox’s Bazar, and there’s upwards of 1 million people in those camps now; it’s a very large number. The other concentrations are far smaller, and in various countries around the world. Many are actually working in the Middle East, Southwest Asia and broader areas of Asia, but that’s the main concentration now, is in eastern Bangladesh.
I understand that you went to Cox’s Bazar in August. Can you tell me what it is like for the folks living in any of those 33 camps that are there?
You have more than a million people, effectively living in open detainment, hopeless. So, mental health needs are ever-spiraling. Vaccination, outbreak needs, water and sanitation [needs]; there are regular outbreaks. There’s even violence in the camps.
A Rohingya refugee gets vaccinated against COVID-19 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Aug.10, 2021.Shafiqur Rahman/AP/File photo
Can you give us an example of what you saw, at these refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar, that would illustrate the situation that people find themselves in there?
There is a very high rate of hepatitis C in the population. It speaks to very poor public health, community engagement and education, and sanitation, and so forth. What we’ve been able to do, using a lot of the community health networks and community leaders, is really educate and go for a very high-intensity, short-period campaign to screen as much of the population as possible in three of the camps, capture as many of the positive cases as there are, do their viral testing and start them on treatment — all in place.
It’s a wonderful example of seeing a public health need that has real individual consequences, in terms of having a viral infection of your liver, but then being able to do some high-level care in a very concerted, short time and create an intervention that can hopefully break the cycle of transmission within the wider population. So, that’s a really good news story, but the other actors, and the whole ecosystem of healthcare across the 33 camps, were not able to achieve that at the same time.
This file photo shows an aerial view taken from a helicopter of the Hla Phoe Khaung transit camp, at Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, Sept. 20, 2018.Ye Aung Thu/Pool via AP/File photo
What can the international community do to help make things better for the Rohingya? I mean, it’s this protracted crisis at this point.
How to resolve a protracted conflict? It’s nothing Doctors Without Borders can do. You need governments, you need politicians, you need people to step in and negotiate peace. That is the solution for the Rohingya, but right here, right now, with dwindling support in the camps, medical and mental health needs are increasing. In a recent survey of attendances for deliberate self-harm and suicide, we found that 1 in 4 of those attendances were adolescents or children. That’s a shocking statistic. It should make anybody sit up. What makes a child want to harm themselves? It’s a mental health crisis that they’re suffering in this camp, really devoid of hope.
In this Sept. 7, 2017 file photo, houses are on fire in Gawdu Zara village, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar.AP/File photo
You stepped into this role as international president of Doctors Without Borders last summer. This is a time when conflict around the world is growing, when aid is shrinking. How do you see your role at this moment in history?
That’s a big question, isn’t it? We’re a movement. We call ourselves a movement of like-minded souls who want to give independent, neutral and impartial medical care, and that’s a vibrant association. So, one of my roles on the internal [side] is to frame, guide and even conclude really important conversations and co-reflection. We do that all the time. What you’ve just asked is exactly the question that’s on all of our minds. We’re in an enormously privileged position right now, not to be affected by those cuts directly, but indirectly we’re being asked to do more with what we have because of what’s going on in this world.
Ethnic Rohingya disembark from their boat upon landing on a beach in Ulee Madon, North Aceh, Indonesia, Nov. 16, 2023.Rahmat Mirza/AP/File photo
You’re not directly impacted because you do not accept government funding, whereas most aid groups do?
So, there’s something there about exploring more partnerships with intentionality, centering communities, and so forth, for us. But [the other part] is the role that MSF has, that Doctors Without Borders has, which is around speaking out. We will remain as witnesses to what is happening and would want to, as much as possible, highlight the effect of these cuts that are happening around the world. We’re quite clear, there is a war on women happening globally. There is an ideological attack on sexual reproductive health rights of women around the world. Women and girls are usually worst affected by conflict, and with this in the background, it’s doubling that. We’re seeing that where we are.
So, part of my role is also to advocate, speak out, to try and paint a picture of what the effect of these cuts have been, and what the dilemmas and issues are, globally. We’re in an era now of impending antimicrobial resistance that’s total, climate change, global conflict. It feels overwhelming. Another part of my role is to maintain that hope and, at least on the inside, to be a focal point on that and to say, “Listen, as MSF, we hold our principles close. We will continue doing what we can do. We’ll do as much as we can.” And we have to be satisfied that we’re trying our best. But, beyond that, yes, it’s a frightening world out there.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.AP contributed to this report.
