'We are not wanted anywhere': Rohingya face fierce new wave of hostility in Malaysia

Not long ago, Malaysia's then-prime minister urged his country to protect Rohingya Muslims – a stateless minority that has fled violence and discrimination in Myanmar for decades. "We must defend them, not just because they are of the same faith, but [because] they are humans, their lives have value," Najib Razak said in 2017. Nine years on, a fierce new wave of hostility against the Rohingya is sweeping the nation. So much so that "going to school has become a dangerous thing," says Irhan, a Rohingya refugee, who founded a school in northern Malaysia for children from his community aged six to 15. We have changed his name to protect his identity. Because Rohingya children are barred from Malaysian public schools, they often attend unlicensed, community-run "learning centres", which are now especially vulnerable. Irhan's school was raided last month, when eight uniformed police officers stormed inside, took photographs of the students and ordered some of them to go home. "The students are just here to learn. Now their families are afraid," he says. A school in Selangor in the west suspended classes for a month and reopened at the end of July with new instructions: students must not

Aug 27, 2026 → Aug 27, 2026