Malaysia has long been considered a safe haven for Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. As of the end of February 2026, 126,000 Rohingyas were registered with the UN refugee agency in Malaysia, out of a total of around 215,600 refugees and asylum seekers. However, they have faced growing hostility since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, culminating in a wave of online hate and disinformation that began in April 2026. On July 27, around 1 hundred Rohingya refugees were forced to leave their homes in a fishing village after their neighbours put up signs urging them to leave. #SaveMalaysiaFromRohingya Maryam* works for the NGO Article 19, which defends freedom of expression in Malaysia and combats hate speech. “The latest wave of anti-Rohingya rhetoric has undoubtedly been one of the most intense in terms of both scale and duration. It began towards the end of April and is still continuing today. It all started with a disinformation campaign claiming that Rohingya refugees were demanding land and special rights. In May, an online petition was launched calling on the Malaysian prime minister to expel Rohingya refugees from Malaysia. Organisations such as UNHCR, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM), and NGOs came under pressure and received threats on social media.”
This Facebook message posted on July 22, 2026 by anti-Rohingya influencer Abang Koroy reads: “The Rohingyas get rich from begging and doing business without paying taxes; they go to private hospitals—government clinics are beneath them.”
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Some Malaysian influencers regularly post anti-Rohingya content and contribute to the spread of hostile hashtags such as #SaveMalaysiaFromRohingya. Maryam* explains : “We reported some of the problematic content to Meta so that action could be taken immediately. However, Meta’s content moderation, complaint handling, and reporting mechanisms remain far too slow to deal with harmful content.” She adds that the situation is particularly alarming because refugees are neither officially recognised nor protected under Malaysian law, as the country is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Although they are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), they have no legal protection and are not allowed to work, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. ‘Rohingyas Are Banned from Kuala Muda’ This wave of online hatred has had dramatic consequences. On July 27, more than 1 hundred Rohingyas were forced to leave their homes in the village of Kuala Muda, in the state of Penang.
This Facebook post from July 28, 2026 celebrates the departure of a group of Rohingya people from the village of Kuala Muda, showing photos of signs displayed by residents with hostile messages, such as: “Rohingya people are banned from Kuala Muda.”
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According to the local newspaper Sinar Harian, the Rohingya population in this village has almost quadrupled, rising from 108 people in 2018 to around 400 in 2026. A non-Rohingya resident told the media outlet Bharian: “The locals feel disadvantaged, particularly economically, because many Rohingya have taken up fishing, creating competition with local residents who depend on fishing for their livelihoods.” The refugee families were reportedly escorted to buses bound for Kuala Lumpur. On arrival in the capital, they went to the office of the UNHCR to seek assistance. They then set up tents outside the organisation’s offices while awaiting a response. The Malaysian police then intervened and detained them for a day to check their documents and legal status. They were eventually released and placed in the care of local NGOs. ‘Many children were chased and harassed on their way to school’ Children are also being targeted. At least nine community schools for refugees have temporarily closed to protect their students. The exact number of affected schools remains difficult to determine. Amira* is the founder of an NGO that provides education for refugees in Malaysia. She describes the climate of fear that has forced many refugee schools to shut their doors. “Many children have been chased and harassed on their way to school. Some of these incidents have been shared on social media. Youth teams from several NGOs are now afraid to go in the field. The content being posted online is extremely radical. It is highly aggressive, using dehumanizing and threatening language. There is a real sense of fear within the Rohingya community.” Ahmad* is a Rohingya teacher and activist in Kuala Lumpur. He teaches at two schools in the capital that decided to close. “One school remained closed for a month, the other for two weeks because of all this chaos. We have only just reopened. Despite the risks, the staff felt it was essential to resume classes so that the children could continue their education. We advised students not to wear their school uniforms so that they would not attract attention on their way to school.” He also points out that his students come from different refugee communities, but many Malaysians assume they are all Rohingya. According to him, this misconception is reinforced by media coverage that often labels all refugees as Rohingya.
This Facebook post, published on 28 July 2026 in a group that regularly shares content hostile to the Rohingya, questions the legitimacy of a community school.
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Amira* explains that refugees have no legal right to formal education in Malaysia, as the country is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. “Schools like ours operate in a grey area. If someone were to ask, ‘Is this school legal? Do you have the right to be here?’ Of course, the answer is no. Some schools have been closed down by the authorities because they did not have the necessary authorisations. The lack of the right to work and access to education marginalises the Rohingya and limits their integration in Malaysia. At the same time, disinformation campaigns wrongly portray them as economic migrants or invaders. On social media, many ask why the UNHCR does not send them to other countries, but they are unaware that its ability to organise resettlement depends on the willingness of states to offer places to refugees.” ‘We cannot trust the Myanmar government to guarantee our safety’ On 23 July, the deputy foreign minister informed Parliament that 5,000 Myanmar nationals currently held in immigration detention centres would be repatriated to Myanmar. On 28 July, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said that the presence of the UNHCR office had made Malaysia “a magnet” for refugees and warned that the government could reconsider the agency’s presence in the country if it refused to resettle more refugees. Despite allegations of genocide against the Rohingya in Myanamar, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced on 30 July that Myanmar had agreed to take back 5,000 Rohingya asylum seekers currently living in Malaysia. The Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) expressed serious concern over the announcement: “We cannot trust the Myanmar government to guarantee our safety while the massacres continue. Rohingyas will be forced to join the Myanmar military without any training and used as human shields in the army’s war against various ethnic armed groups. That is the only reason the Myanmar military has agreed to take the Rohingyas back.” However, the Malaysian government later appeared to reverse its position. On 5 August, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil announced that the government would not deport refugees if they faced a risk of persecution. Denied citizenship under Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law, the Rohingya fled the country in large numbers in 2017 following a military campaign marked by massacres, sexual violence, and the systematic destruction of villages. The International Court of Justice is currently examining allegations of genocide against Myanmar over those events, following hearings held in January 2026. * For security reasons, the people interviewed for this article asked to speak anonymously and their names have been changed.